Feature

A Rare Find

By Ann Marie Quill
Photography by Marcy J. Levinson

Want to add some "magic" to your home and garden?

Caron Hopkins (pictured center) offers her So Rare customers everything from plants and garden decorations and furniture to vintage home and fashion accessories.

So Rare
407 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.
Decatur 30030
(404) 377-0102

All it takes is a drive to downtown Decatur and a visit to So Rare, an eclectic antique shop with items found in flea markets in all corners of the world from Budapest to Amsterdam.

One online reviewer says that he nearly causes a traffic accident every time he drives by the funky shop on West Ponce de Leon Avenue. Garden furniture, ornaments and plants fill the outside front, appearing to have spilled out from the interior, which is brimming with all sorts of treasures to adorn your home and, with vintage clothing and jewelry, even yourself.

A mezuzah in the doorway greets visitors, but that's where anything traditional about So Rare ends.

Caron Hopkins opened the shop 10 years ago when she saw a "for rent" sign in the front – just a month before her daughter, Lindsay, entered high school. Hopkins gave the landlord $300 in "earnest money" &msash;something she surely wouldn't be able to do these days in the booming downtown Decatur area.

She wanted to build a life for her and daughter, and they secretly lived in the back of the shop for a while. Hopkins says they would do laundry only at night so the neighbors wouldn't smell the drying clothes from the vent. They no longer live there — Hopkins has a house and her now-grown daughter lives in a nearby apartment, but Hopkins says the time spent there with her daughter was priceless.

When Hopkins first opened the store, she persuaded her own mother to make paintings for her to sell. "I talked her into being an artist," she says, adding, "Then I put my magic on it," referring to the hand-painted whimsical signage that adorns the front of So Rare.

These days, Hopkins also sells her daughter's handmade jewelry. And she's clearly proud of her daughter, who has plans to become a professional masseuse.

So not only did Hopkins create a home for her family in her shop, but she also helps visitors add a special touch to their own homes with the "magic" she sells.

"My favorite thing is touching everybody who walks in," she says.