Community Highlights: Meet Anne Powell and Elle Varnell of Lovely Vintage Rug Co (LVR)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Powell and Elle Varnell .

Hi Anne Powell and Elle Varnell, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
During a home remodel in 2020, Anne became acquainted with the style and versatility of vintage Turkish rugs. She fell in love with the simplistic beauty and unique design element that Turkish rugs offer and thought others might too. When Anne lost her job as a result of COVID, she pursued her passion for sourcing such beautiful rugs and sharing them with her network. In 2021, Anne became a mom, and later moved to Nashville to be near family. Anne’s older sister, Elle, had purchased several rugs from Lovely Vintage Rug Co throughout the years. As the company grew, it made sense (and fun!) to work together.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Struggles: Finding long-lasting business partners, learning the ins and outs of handling growth (i.e. bookkeeping with multiple partners), multitasking (together we have six young children and most days are complete chaos!), finding the right variety and price to make our customers feel valued.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Lovely Vintage Rug Co (LVR)?
We are Anne and Elle, sisters and owners of Lovely Vintage Rug Co. We sell vintage Turkish and Persian rugs to bring beauty, warmth, and history into your home. We support our local Nashville customers and ship nationwide through our social media presence. We enjoy making a connection with people in our Nashville community by sharing a common interest in vintage rug love. It is important to us to have the buying experience feel personal and fun. Over the last four years we have shipped rugs to nearly every state, and it is fun to watch the LVR community continue to grow outside of Nashville. Personally, it’s such joy to work with your sister and grow something together! We have six young children, and it feels purposeful for them to watch us enjoy our work and enjoy who we work with. They are active participants in our business.…it’s wonderful we can do something from our home with them involved.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
-Working as sisters makes us laugh and happy. There is such a comfort level and familiarity in how we operate together that is so organic. -Unpacking stunning and unique rugs. It is a nervous energy when we get a new shipment!
-Having our customers send pictures of the rugs in their homes! They are so happy, and that is the best feeling.
-The whole experience for us feels very personal since we are intentionally selecting the rugs. Many times before someone even buys a rug, we have already developed a connection.
-The rugs have a story, and we find deep satisfaction in how each rug is unique and holds a piece of history from a different part of the world.

Pricing:

• Pricing for our rugs is based on size, quality, uniqueness, region, and age. Since we work from our home, we have minimal overhead which allows us to translate that cost savings to our customers.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @lovelyvintagerugco