Stephanie Spear 
There’s a whitewashed brick storefront with a bright green awning tucked under a shady section of Maple Avenue in Vienna. It’s the home of the Pear Tree Cottage, a vintage home, art, gift, and garden accessory shop. The shop is located at 30 Maple Avenue E and has been a go-to spot for those looking for one-of-a-kind gifts and home decor items in Northern Virginia since 2008. The Fairfax Girl got to chat with Jennie Latham, the store’s owner since 2014, about the business. Read on for more about The Pear Tree Cottage and our chat with Jennie.
About the Store
The Pear Tree Cottage is located at 30 Maple Avenue East in Vienna. The store opened in 2008 and specializes in vintage home and gift items, and garden accessories. Fairfax native Jennie Latham has been involved with the Pear Tree Cottage since 2011 and officially took over the store in 2014. In 2019 Jennie brought on three women she already knew who were all talented interior designers to help run the store. “Since then, I feel very strongly that it’s been the best interation of the store,” Jennie said.
Two members of her team, Denise Eckert and Stephanie Freitas, are both interior designers and co-own a design firm called Sweetwood Collective. Jennie says that this passion for design is something that makes visiting the shop so special. “Most days of the week you’ll find an owner here,” she said. “Someone that has specific knowledge about the pieces because maybe that’s who picked it out, or someone who just knows a lot about the shop.”
The store frequently hosts special events such as a booze and bouquet evening. Jennie says, “We do wine and cheese and we’ll have a local florist or a friend of ours who is a flower farmer come in and we’ll do flower arranging and bouquet tying. One night we did a vintage vessel night where shoppers can fill it with flowers. It’s just a fun time to chat, be together in the shop and have a glass of wine.”
Jennie says that running a small business in Vienna is fantastic. “Vienna has such a strong community,” she said. “Not only is the local government and public officials very supportive of small businesses, the community comes out where there’s the opening of a new restaurant and everyone’s talking about it. We feel that support year-round.”
“Being a part of the community and having a physical presence here on Maple Avenue has become one of my very favorite things,” Jennie said. “Having a brick-and-mortar shop is challenging at times, as so many people are moving their shops online. But since we’ve been here since 2008, so many people have heard of the store or shopped here. It’s flattering to have lasted as long as we have as part of the community. We’re so appreciative of our friends, clients, and the community.”
What You’ll Find
Since the store’s inventory is always changing, no two visits will yield the same results. Jennie and her team are constantly shopping and seeking inspiration via travel, reading, architecture, and other sources. “We all love to shop and hunting out the fun pieces is the best part, you know. We thrift, go to estate sales, and if we’re on vacation, we’ll shop there,” Jennie said. “We go to auctions and big sales like Brimfield in Massachusetts, High Point in North Carolina, and one of our partners even goes out to Round Top in Texas.”
Each of the different team members has a different taste and style, which makes for an eclectic selection in the store. “One of us is more Bohemian, one of us has a beautiful French kind of aesthetic,” Jennie said. “I am very into Chinoiserie, and we all enjoy modern.” This variety makes the inventory fun to play around with. “KNowing how to layer antiques with a modern aesthetic is what’s going to make your house look updated and not like a time capsule,” she said.
Jennie said that the team’s eye for design makes it easy for shoppers to get good advice on how to style a particular item. “Having designers in the shop means they can tell you how these things will be best used in your home or how to put an antique piece next to a modern piece,” she said. “There are things happening in the design world that will keep you on point even with more traditional pieces. It’s that layering of traditional and modern that makes it happen.”
“I hope anyone who comes in who enjoys interiors could find a piece. We want everybody to talk away with something if they’re drawn to it,” Jennie said. “We try to have pieces that are well-priced as well as a little bit of anything for everybody at any price range.”
At Christmas time, the team brings in more gifts and easy-to-grab items for people who are trying to fill lists, in addition to the vintage collection. “It’s a family atmosphere that time of year, we get people’s family members coming in to shop because they know their loved one likes The Pear Tree,” Jennie said.
During our visit, we found fun vintage barware, some cool framed art, and several lamps and lampshades that we wanted to add to our Pinterest board. This is in addition to larger pieces like a Mid-Century Modern dining set, an antique breakfront cabinet, and several types of seating. We also saw several items that would be easy hostess gifts or add-ons to other gifts, such as a quirky matchbook to go with one of the beautiful scented candles available in the store, or a quirky dishtowel that would make a nice wrapping for a bottle of wine.
The Fun Stuff:
Favorite restaurant: The Vienna Inn and Bear Branch Tavern. We just had a great meal at the Maple Room.
Something I like about living in Fairfax County. “The diversity! Having neighbors that have lots of different backgrounds, have lived all over the world, have had so many different experiences and can bring a lot of knowledge and experience to the table. Not only do people do interesting things for their day jobs, they’ve lived in interesting places and they like to eat at cool restaurants. They’ll take you to a place you didn’t even think to go to before and it becomes your new favorite spot. It just broadens your horizons so much living in the area.”
Where do you like to shop: I love to mix and high low. And I love the mall, I worked there in the 90s and I like to go even if its just for inspiration, to see what’s trending. Then I’ll go to the thrift store and find some of the same lines or shapes that are popular now.
Where do you find inspiration: I read a lot of Elle Decor and House Beautiful and Architectural Digest. I really get inspiration from what others are doing in their creative spaces. Finding lines or colors that are nods to different trends and finding the same thing at an estate sale or an auction.
The Pear Tree Cottage is located at 30 Maple Avenue E in Vienna. The store is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10AM to 5PM, and on Sundays from 12PM to 4PM. The store is closed on Mondays and has extended hours during the month of December.
