A local homeware store with a love of colour

NINE years ago, the doors to a boutique full of colour and enthusiasm opened to Geelong.

Today, homewares store Ampersand, on Pakington Street, is no less colourful and a serious style destination for boutique gifts, homewares and textiles, to clothes, jewellery, accessories and fine art.

Billie Davis, who co-founded the store with her husband Jonathan Davis, said the couple hoped to create a bright and bubbly workplace, with a homely feel.

“We just knew we wanted to have lots of colour and lots of different things,” Billie Davis said.

“Our motto is, we didn’t want to limit ourselves on anything we put into the store… just a lot of colour and pattern and anything that makes you happy.

“Even now sometimes we’ve got more furniture in the store, sometimes we’ve got more cushions or decorators, we just really ebb and flow with the store and it evolves on a monthly and weekly basis.

“You want to walk into a room and smile and feel at home there, so we just try to create that with all our products.”

When the business started, Billie said the couple were lucky to make connections with local suppliers just starting out, that are now very successful.

“We’ve stocked Kip and Co, Sage and Clare, and Society of Wonder for basically that entire time. We got onto Rollie when they were until operating out of a garage up in Fitzroy and now they are global.

“We pretty much just rolled with it, we just found anything that was colourful and amazing and just go in there.

“We’ve always had artwork and fashion and shoes.”

Davis described their style as very bright, colourful and mismatching.

The store is a display of carefully selected suppliers and local pools of talent, the perfect place for new homebuyers to find inspiration, or for gifts for a loved one, or to develop your home’s style.

Ampersand is the first place to stop for all things lifestyle, homewares, colour, gifts, and fashion.

The team of interior and style-obsessed staff at Ampersand facilitate a space where everyone can dream, create and feel on-trend.

“I know it’s cliché but we’re all friends, we all go out for a few drinks after work and we always have a laugh when we’re in there doing things. You don’t want your work to be serious, you want it to be fun, you spend more time in there than you do at home,” Davis said.

Three years ago, Ampersand launched Ampersand home and Geelong outdoor furniture, branching out into indoor and outdoor furniture to complement their homewares.

Over the next few years, Billie said they will continue to build the furniture sides of the business, while staying the same locally focused Ampersand the Geelong West community knows and loves.

“Other than that, [the plan is] just to keep having fun, keep trying to find new colourful things for the store.”

Davis said Ampersand are still a local business, and said they plan on staying that way.

“We’ve never really gone that corporate, we just want to have a great fun working environment and have fun with our customers.

“It’s all just about having a good time. We make friends with our customers, it’s just to have a good time and bring colour to everybody’s lives.”