A burst of color greets visitors who have the good fortune to find their way into Stuart Vintage , a new boutique specializing in vintage home decor. The shop is the brainchild of Alison Manship, who worked at Matilda’s for 14 years before deciding to open her own boutique earlier this year.
Manship grew up in a historic home in Stamford, Connecticut surrounded by antique furnishings. “People’s houses told a story,” she says of the neighborhood where she spent her childhood. In 2005, she moved to Boca Raton with her then-boyfriend, and the couple eventually moved north, settled in Stuart, and got married. In 2010, Manship began working with Dana Small at Matilda’s in downtown Stuart. “I went into every boutique until I found Matilda’s,” she recalls. “Dana and I bonded over all the same things.”
She loved working at Matilda’s, but she also had big plans for the future percolating in the back of her mind. “I was piling things up in my garage, and I started getting good at refurbishing,” she says. “I thought, one day I’ll open my own store.”