Tickety Boo, A World Where The Old Is Made New

The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.

When Tickety Boo Mercantile co-owner Sasha Cantley was a child, she kept things.

Toys that broke didn’t get the boot. Instead, the young Sasha stored them.

It’s no surprise, perhaps, that she developed a “thing” for containers, too.

“My parents were like, ‘Why do you have all these shoe boxes?'” Cantley, now an uptown Beckley store owner, recalled Friday. “I don’t know.”

As she grew older, Cantley’s love for “fixing” things didn’t wane. She learned to use power tools from her father, who owned a construction company.

In college, she studied theater set design, learning to use what was available to create ambiance.

Tickety Boo Mercantile is less like a store and more of a lovely world that Cantley and her business partner, Nancy Chambers, have created with the help of several artists and a big, brown dog named Poncho.

The front window beckons charmingly on Neville Street, inviting passers-by to step inside to a world where the old is made new and the common is reimagined.

Tickety Boo is home to an eclectic mix of recycled, rescued, repurposed, remodeled and reinvented sofas, tables, chairs and other pieces of furniture.

Shoppers meander through displays of rugs, pictures, old sleds, rolling pins, knickknacks and more curiosities in the shop’s consignment area.

They may stop to pet the resident Australian husky, Poncho — also a rescue — as the canine makes his own rounds through Tickety Boo Mercantile, adding to the joie de vivre that is at the core of Tickety Boo.

“As far as consignment on our furniture, we are selective,” Cantley said. “You can’t just bring me the contents of your garage.

“I want to see what it is, and make sure it can be fixed, repaired, changed, and then I’ll take it, clean it, change it. I call it ‘lipstick’.”

Artists set up shop and add their own creativity to the store’s fanciful tenor. Original jewelry, quilts, photographs, stained glass, nature art and metal sculptures invite a second look, and a fragrance maker’s scents waft through the store.

Kayla Juku Jewelry, Robby Moore Art, Old Crow and Me Metal Art, Two Crafty Ladies 4 U, Heart of Glass, Tam’s Tarts, Art by Amy, Woodberry Signs, Leigh Leigh Photography, Teacup Trinkets, Mountain Goddess Concoctions (bath confections) and Future Antiquities all are represented there.

“All are made locally,” Cantley said. “Some are married, and it’s supplemental income; some are single moms.
“We are selective about that as well,” she added. “We’re very loyal to our vendors.”

Cantley and Chambers, the former owner of Nancy’s Attic in Beckley, also rent props through Tickety Boo Mercantile, and they set up displays for both Marquee Cinemas and Raleigh Theatre, located next door to Tickety Boo.

Downstairs from Tickety Boo Mercantile is their second business, Brown Dog Bottom, named after a late brown dog named Sadie.

Brown Dog Bottom offers themed parties for events, providing both indoor and outdoor space, big screen TVs, video games, arcade games, a pool table, dart boards and other activities behind Neville Street, at “the bottom.”

Do you remember the younger Sasha’s fascination with containers?

Brown Dog Enterprises, the “main” arm of Brown Dog Bottom, offers storage management services.

In the re-burgeoning business district in uptown Beckley, Cantley and Chambers claimed a success Saturday, celebrating their two-year anniversary with door prizes, major sales and cocktails and refreshments at Brown Dog Bottom.

As the city looks to entrepreneurs to revitalize the area, Tickety Boo Mercantile — the name is “the equivalent of hunky-dory,” Cantley said — is a success.

“It means ‘all good,'” she said. “That’s what we try to do. We sell all things good.”