LAS CRUCES – Walking into Burn Lake Trading is truly like stumbling upon a treasure chest full of unique, vintage and antique finds tucked away in a shop along Solano Drive.
Donna Bourgoin and Jim Mack opened the vintage market in November 2021. The couple has been picking and collecting items throughout the years and it was finally time to open up their passion for customers.
“We have storage units of stuff, we've been picking forever,” Bourgoin said.
“What happens is you end up collecting so much you have to open a store,” Mack said.
The building space they’re located in, 301 N. Solano Dr. #4, was previously an optometrist’s office. Several rooms within the space serve as partitions for displays of items and decor, which include everything from dishes and lamps to figurines and furniture, plus just about anything else you can think of.
It's a store where customers can take hours to wander around in and still not see everything.
But it’s definitely not a thrift store. Bourgoin and Mack have already done the digging and hunting for special pieces. Their store is the result of all that work.
Customers might find hand-painted Delft blue porcelain tea cups and vases or maybe worn vintage shelving on which to display their smaller finds.
Burn Lake Trading also features products from local and neighboring state vendors. Loose-leaf teas are brought in from Houston, candles are hand-poured in El Paso and Melange mineral paint comes from a woman-owned business in Texas.
“I get a lot of (customers who say), ‘I need to go around four times to see everything,' because there’s so much stuff,” Bourgoin said.
The store already has a group of loyal customers who visit about once a week or so to check out newly added pieces.
Bourgoin said she was raised by her mother in the antique world in Connecticut. She said she finds it sad to see so many quality items getting thrown away by people when others would want them. Her love for vintage items has carried across states and eventually to the southwest.
She previously worked with a group in El Paso called Basil Court Whimsey,which holds a monthly vintage market on Redd Road. But while the constant picking and staging was educational, it became too much after a while, Bourgoin said. Though she still often recommends customers to the El Paso business.
Then, she and Mack decided to take part in an antique mall in Albuquerque. She said this venture was also successful, but it required constant restaging of their booth as they sold items.
“We just said ‘Las Cruces is ready. It’s time,’” Bourgoin said.
Creativity with staging is put on display at their own store and they cut the cost and time of traveling out of their business. Bourgoin said she already collected about half of the items in the vintage market prior to opening while the other half they acquired more recently. There are still collected items that the couple said they would like to introduce into the store – some personal items that Bourgoin said she has held onto long enough.
And Mack said he has many western, rustic items that don’t quite fit with the esthetic of the shop.
“We’d have to do a whole other store,” he said.
They currently have their eye on a location in Deming where they could open another store and feature a different style of antique or vintage wares.
The couple also purchases items from people locally and on consignment, though Bourgoin said she treads lightly in thoseareas. People bring in items to the shop just about every day but only about half the time does she find something she purchases. Pieces must fit with her vision of the shop and the established vibe – she is quite selective.
But Bourgoin said she loves “looking at people’s stuff.” She would just rather see photos of items or visit in person herself rather than have them brought to her in the shop.
Since opening in November, they said the response to their business has all been positive. Fans of antiques and vintage items find a haven inside Burn Lake Trading, where your eye is bound to find something to take home.
Burn Lake Trading Vintage Market is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., “by appointment or by chance.” They can be reached via email at burnlaketrading@gmail.com. Follow the store on Instagram with the handle @burnlaketrading.
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Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News andcan be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.comor@rromero_leahon Twitter.
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