“Three Floors, Have Fun!”
About the Business:
When you come visit Brandywine View, “Three Floors, Have Fun!” is what you’ll hear as you walk in the door. There is something for everyone, whether you’re looking for antiques, vintage, handmade, salvage, upcycled or fare from local vendors. We strive to do our best to find the unique items and hidden gems that our customers will just have to take home with them!
Our new saying is: “enter as strangers, but leave as friends.” And I can honestly say, that after 20 years of growing my business along Rt 1, many of our customers have become friends. So, next time you’re in the Brandywine Valley, make sure you add us to your list of places to visit! Stop in to see what everyone has been talking about, with fabulous vendors, fresh lines… it’s well worth the trip!
About the Owner:
I love saving the past! Most of all, I love my job.
I grew up with entrepreneurial instincts, I would come up with creative ideas to earn my own money. When I was little, I would go door to door selling handmade wares. Funny thing, most of my regulars stopped answering the door… When I was 10, I was given a lawn mower for my birthday. I started my own lawn mowing company and made money by cutting the grass of all of our neighbors… until one day, I got a stick in my leg. That was the end of that. LOL Wouldn’t that be considered child labor today?
I’m the type of person that lives to work. After starting my own catering and cleaning businesses, I felt that something was missing. I loved stuff… Being out on my own at 18, I started collecting a lot of vintage items and antiques. Since I had a small apartment, I was quickly becoming a hoarder. Thus started my realization that this hobby could become an adventure. It got to the point where I needed to find a career to focus on, and antiques it was!
I started taking my wares to local re-sale shops and started going back to the same flea markets where me and my dad had scoured for tools when I was three. I realized that my wares were worth a lot more than what I was getting for them and decided that I needed to start my own booth.
For the summer of 1996, I gave up every Saturday of my prime youth to manage a second-floor antique shop in Mullica Hill, New Jersey. I had a small booth there. After the summer ended, it was time for a change. I was searching for a sign, and got it during a drive through the Pennsylvania countryside. I almost hit a deer and realized Chadds Ford, PA would be a great place to start fresh.
As time went on, I started growing my customer base and moved between different locations on Rt 1. I knew that it was time for my own little shop. It was a 1,000 square foot place called The Carriage House. Busting out of the seams, it was time to move on. In 2008, I was finally able to fulfill a dream of mine by opening Brandywine View Antiques less than two minutes from my original shop. A lot happened at this location; I met and married the man I was looking for my whole life, we rescued three freeloading kitties and I knew after seven and a half years of renting, it was finally time to find a place to call our own. Fast forward, 20 years later, we purchased the William Painter Farm, less than a mile from my near “deer encounter.”
Opened on August 27, 2015… and we still have three floors!
See you soon and thanks for visiting our site.
Lisa Vonderstuck,
Proprietor