By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

Driving by the quaint, red shop on Main Hill, many likely were surprised and disappointed to see a yellow banner neatly stretched across the building’s front and side walls.

“Shop closing.”

But why, many have wondered? Did Covid-19 and a statewide shutdown result in the popular wine and home décor business falter?

Quite the opposite.

Beyond their wildest dreams, Rick and Julie Whelchel enjoyed great success as they transformed a dusty, rarely open antique business into a restored, vibrant, bustling shop that became a “destination” to a loyal following.

Although deemed an “essential service” by the state during the virus lockdown, the Whelchels decided to stay safe and close the shop. During this time, the couple gave serious thought that after seven years of hustling and working long hours — two key ingredients to success in the tough retail market — it was time to find better “life balance.”

When Rick’s daughter passed away during the Covid lockdown, the couple decided to again take a big leap of faith — they will close J. Décor as a wine and home furnishing retail store and reshape the beautiful showroom into an interior design work space, where Julie can meet customers by appointment only. Rick, meanwhile, will enter semi-retirement.

“I want to do some volunteer work,” he said. “We have property west of town and I want to be able to work it. I’ll stay busy. I want to be able to get and decide what I want to do that day — a kayak ride on the lake or a hike or spend time with the grandchildren.”

Reduced pricing on home décor items started last week, but while inventory dwindles, J. Décor will continue to offer a wide selection of wines until the Whelchels close the doors. A final closing date has yet to be decided and regular hours will be kept, but customers can check the store’s website, social media and newspaper ads for updates.

“It’s definitely a bittersweet time,” Julie said. “I felt tremendous guilt the past 17 years being unable to spend time with my family. We are so excited about our next chapter.”

Chapter 1: Innkeepers to shopkeepers

The Whelchels moved to Bridgton in August 2003 when they purchased the Noble House Inn. They thoroughly enjoyed meeting folks from across the globe, but the grind of working seven days a week, 364 days a year started to take its toll.

“As innkeeping goes, the national standard at the time was five years. We said we could do it for five years. Each subsequent year, end of the year or when we took a break in the spring, we asked each other, ‘Do you want to do it another year?’ Yeah, we’re still rocking it and having a lot of fun,” Julie said.

Then, a single moment changed the couple’s course.

While walking her dog, Julie stopped and peered into an old antique shop. Through the dusty window, she saw eye-catching woodwork and imagined the space years ago when it served as a pharmacy.

When Julie returned to the inn, Rick immediately sensed a certain excitement in her voice.

“You’re not going to believe what I just saw,” she said.

“What are you talking about?” Rick responded.

Together, the couple went to the Main Street building and took a closer look.

“I want this building someday,” Julie said. “I want to take care of it.”

The Whelchels purchased the building in 2009.

“Stepping inside, it was just spectacular. It was full of antiques, but when you go through, exit the shop and see the rest of the building, upstairs, it’s full 2,000 square foot apartment that has never been modified. The original kitchen is an enormous room. Old farm sink. No rooms cut up. Pocket doors. Beautiful casing around the windows — thoughtful and for the period. Original hardware,” Julie said.

“When I first walked in here, it was like stepping back 140 years. You get goosebumps.

We did not know what we were going to do because we still owned the inn,” Rick said.

A seed, however, was planted in the back of their minds.

“We can do something really cool over there. It was the springboard and impetus for us to start thinking about we needed to sell the inn to dedicate time to this building,” Julie said.

Ten years as innkeepers was enough. Time to move on.

 “We knew it would take some time to sell the inn. We also knew we needed a landing place. One thing we knew for sure is that we love Bridgton. No matter what we did, it was going to be in Bridgton,” Rick noted.

The inn sold in 2012 to Cindi Hooper. During a cross-country trip, the next chapter for the Whelchels started to come into focus.

“We knew we love wine,” Rick said. “During our three-month trip, we had one reservation — it was in Napa Valley because we knew when we got there, they were beginning the harvest so we needed to have a place to stay.”

At the inn, the couple kept an “abbreviated” wine list but they had a “passion” when it came to wines. One piece of the business puzzle was in place — they would create a wine shop.

The second piece was realized while sitting out on a porch in Amish country in Ohio. It was late October and the sun was just rising in the sky when the couple heard the distinct taps of horseshoes slowly moving up the road. Through the fog, they saw a horse-drawn carriage.

Growing up in Ohio, Julie had always loved the quality of Amish-made furniture.

“It dawned on me, we can sell this,” she said. “We stayed down there for a few days talking to furniture manufacturers. By the time we got home, we knew it’s wine and home décor. In January 2014, work started to transform their historical building into J. Décor. It proved to be a six-month project, which included taking down original light fixtures and having them restored, as well as rolling a 15-foot marble counter with a glass top down the hill to a storage space. By July, the store was ready for business.

Immediately, customers were appreciative and dazzled by the Whelchels’ knowledge regarding wines. Pairing wines to foods and deciphering what type might best suit one’s palate came from hours spent reading and tasting.

“We pushed hard to read everything we could; taste everything that we could; the whole concept was to know every single label that we had by taste. Number 1 is taste. Number 2 is you read. You talk to others that are in the business. When we travel, if we see a wine shop, we’re in there. We talk to people,” Rick said. “When you go to shows, and have up to a thousand bottles to taste, you have to go in with a plan.”

The couple created a rating system whereby each gave a wine a check mark 1 through 3.

“Rick might taste a win and give it 2 check marks; I might give it 3. Or a big fat X. For it to make it on our shelf, we both have to give it 3 checks,” Julie said. “In doing that, the more you taste, the more nuance your palette becomes. The more you pick up on things. Because we focus on small, grower producers — they are winemakers that grow their own grapes and produce their own wines — a lot of what is in the grocery stores are mass produced wines. The winery might be buying its grapes from five different growers, doing things that aren’t necessarily, in my mind, isn’t making wine. They’re manufactured wines. Wineries take pressed juice that not wine, but grape juice and add a distilled spirit to it, alcohol and sugar and call it wine. We know intimately every bottle in here. We know when vintages change; we ask our reps to taste the new vintage because every year, the wine is different. Some vintages are better than the prior year, and some aren’t. If they aren’t, they don’t make it on our shelves.”

Are the couple generally on the same page when it comes to wine selections?

“We have had a wine rep bring in a sample that he hasn’t tried yet, open it, take a sip, and all three of us look at each other and say, ‘that’s incredible.’ We’re pretty close together what we like,” Rick said.

“We’re the Siskel & Ebert of the wine shop,” Julie noted.

“We tell people, in jest and with a smile on our face, that if we don’t like a wine, it’s not on our shelf. Some might argue you’re only buying to your own personal taste. We really guard against that. Even though there are wines on the shelves that aren’t my personal favorites. I wouldn’t drink them on a day to day basis, I know what a good one is supposed to taste like,” Rick said. “You learn by tasting. So many people come in here and say, ‘I don’t know anything about wine. I’m intimidated by it.’ Slow down. Stop. Do you know what you like or don’t like? That’s where you start. We’ll give them a lower cost, under $15, take it home and try it. Come back and tell me what you think of it. They’ll come back and say, ‘I really liked it’ or “It was a little too full bodied for me.’ So, there is a process they go through to get dialed in to what they like. It’s an experiment, a times. ‘What else can I try?’”

Folks like to hear the story behind the wine and the winemaker.

“We’re not pretentious wine people. We do not look at drinking wine as a prestigious act. Wine is part of my meal. Wine is part of my diet,” Julie said

“Wine is fun,” Rick added.

The Covid shutdown proved to the Whelchels just how special the Lake Region is. When the store reopened on Memorial Day weekend with curbside service, the response was “so supportive.”

“We couldn’t believe it. We were so grateful. People would call and said they needed a case of wine. ‘What would you like?’ Surprise me, they’d say. Or, they wanted six reds and six whites. We knew their tastes. We’d give them what we knew they would like, but also a left turn. Similar but different. It was fun to help customers expand their palettes. After we opened back up, they asked for the ones they had tried and liked,” Julie said.

Every bottle that is placed on shelves are disinfected. The store limit is five customers at a time, all must wear masks, and the Whelchels ask if they can give folks a squirt of sanitizer.

“To everyone’s credit, people have been super to us. No issues with people not wanting to wear a mask. Occasionally, people will come to the door, see us with face masks, and will leave. That’s okay. I’m not mad. I hope they’re not mad. We have disposal face masks to give out,” Rick said.

To give back to the community, the couple purchased gift certificates from local restaurants and stores, and offered them to customers as part of weekly drawings.

“Trying to spread the love around and pay it back. The beauty of the people here in Bridgton is that they would say they weren’t going to use the gift certificates until the businesses were able to open back up. ‘I know cash is tight.’ We had a customer come in and buy a substantial gift certificate from us, and he kept it, he didn’t use it until late July. He bought it for himself just to support us. That’s what you love about what we have here in Bridgton,” Julie said.

Covid-19 also proved to be a “wake-up” call for the Whelchels. Julie found she was unable to see her parents, who are in their mid-80s, as well as her handicap sister in Ohio.

“How many more visits do you have when your parents are a certain age?” she asked herself. “We don’t see our grandchildren, who live in Waterford, because we’re always working.”

Rick lost his daughter, who resided in Birmingham, Ala. “I couldn’t go down there,” he said. “That was incredibly hard.”

Before Covid, the Whelchels had assistants that gave them days off. Neither part-timers are comfortable in public settings right now, so since March 12, the couple have been operating the store seven days a week, just the two of them.

“I’m not crying about that. Every day, we count our blessings because there are so many out there that are in worst shape,” Rick said.

But, they want more out of life.

Chapter 2: Shopkeeper to designer

When Julie was a kid, she always wanted to keep redecorating her bedroom.

“I knew the color schemes I wanted. So much of my early learning came from observation. My father is an engineer, my mother is a scientist. They are both practical, precise people. I’ve learned the key to observation,” she said.

When the Whelchels purchased the Noble House, the couple did extensive renovations there.

“I wanted a fresh look. Every home we’ve been in has been a historic home, and we’ve done extensive renovation. We have a ton of experience. Customers that came in and saw our place would ask for help with paint colors or kitchen remodel and need help with design,” Julie said. “It started to evolve to point I offered two services: onsite verbal consultation or services for a larger contracted project. It’s grown so much that I have to turn people away. I hate to do that, but it’s just me. I don’t have a staff. My time only goes so far. And when you run a retail shop and you’re the one stocking shelves, there’s not a whole lot of time for other things.”

When Julie signed on a major design client, the thought of heading in another business direction emerged.

Out, will be J. Décor, the retail wine shop.

In, will be J. Décor, interior design services.

Design clients will be able to purchase furniture, rugs, lamps, pillows, etc. No candles or gifts.

When talking with a client or potential client, how does Julie get on the same page?

“I always want to know who will be using the space. I ask if they have a partner/children/parents/pets; whether they’ll live there full time or whether it’s a vacation home? When a client expresses their desire to rent out their home, I draw on my experience as a former innkeeper, which was an unintentional study in human behavior. That certainly influences my recommendations,” she said.

What are some of the key elements she applies to capture the “look” or “style” a client is looking for?

“I draw inspiration from my extensive travels. Many clients come to Maine wanting a casual, rustic home and our shop reflects my approach to that style. I never want my client’s home to be a cliché. So, I work to create an authentic, quality aesthetic that reflects a connection to nature. The result is a space that transcends the style du jour,” she said.

When designing, plenty of challenges arise. “Helping clients align their expectations with their budget is probably the largest challenge. The advent of HGTV has created an expectation that an entire home can be gutted, fixed, finished and furnished in a week for $50k. This simply isn’t realistic. Planning and budgeting is the most important phase when designing a space. So, I work hard to get that right,” she added.

What skills will Julie rely upon to succeed in this new venture?

“I grew up sailing with my dad who is a NASA engineer. He was very clear about how and why he did the things. (He still is, lol.) That taught me about the power of observation, and that every action should have a clear purpose. I studied industrial design and received my degree summa cum laude in Industrial Management. My career as a Quality & Environmental Systems Specialist in the automotive and child safety seat industries essentially meant that I created plans for successful processes and solved problems for a living,” she noted. “Fast forward to being an innkeeper where I learned, hands-on, about home renovations, functional kitchen layouts, and how people really behave in their homes. I guess you would say that in a very organic way, all of these factors have informed my approach to design…I have a consistent style and stay true to myself.”

Staying true to one’s desire to find balance in life has closed one door for Julie and Rick Whelchel, but has opened another door — one each looks forward to entering and seeing what’s on the other side.