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Business & Tech

Unveiling a Local Secret to Save You Money

The cat's out of the bag! A shopping secret revealed.

Decorating a new home or apartment, or redecorating your existing home can get expensive. Sure, you could save quite a bit of money buying furniture or decorative items that are mass-produced, but wouldn’t it be more fun and make you happier in the long run if your home could reflect your own unique style with one-of-a-kind pieces that still come in under budget?

I have an answer to your dreams today, and it’s not a secret, but it is.  is a fantastic small business, located at 100 Conant St, and is owned by Kimm Tremblay. Tremblay can take just about anything and give it a new purpose and a new look or style. Tremblay opened the store in May 2010.

It’s a Secret has regular weekend hours, but if you’d like to visit the store at another time, you can give Tremblay a call and she will open the store especially for you. You won’t find many businesses so willing to accommodate their clientele.

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Additionally, this weekend only, April 30 and May 1, Tremblay says she will present the shop’s very first sale event! You won’t want to miss out, as there will be savings galore. Mother’s Day gift items will also be available.

Painted furniture is a specialty of It’s a Secret, and a variety of unusual pieces are available, along with seasonal items and unique gifts. You may find both indoor and outdoor decorations, accessories and even candles and candle holders. The store does stock some new items in addition to the refurbished things for sale.

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I can tell you first hand that you will find yourself drawn to several things in the store, but if you truly fall in love with something, buy it then before it’s gone. The inventory is always changing. You can even bring your own furniture or small pieces into the store and ask about having them custom painted with a design of your choosing.

During my visit to It’s a Secret, when Tremblay first opened the store, she related a story about a woman who wanted a trunk painted with crows on it. You see, her daughter had expressed her love for crows and the trunk would be a perfect gift. Comically, it was later revealed that the daughter’s real object of affection was the band “The Counting Crows!”

A woman after my own heart, Tremblay suggests that people buy things that can be put to more than one use. She is also a member of Danvers Freecycle and is truly committed to keeping things out of the landfill and recycling them into objects d’art.

As an added bonus, shoppers are treated to free cookies. You know free is good! Even better, the shop does not accept credit cards; therefore, you can shop with the knowledge that if you can’t pay for it now, you won’t have a big credit card bill later. It occurs to me that people who follow It’s A Secret on Facebook may see items Tremblay posts photos of and think that they are very expensive because they are so beautiful. Tremblay prices things so that they are affordable while maintaining high quality standards.

Where else can you buy rare or one-of-a-kind pieces, shop without a salesperson hovering over you (unless it is to bring you a cookie!), and be assured that you won’t go into debt?

Please note that I do not normally suggest a particular business in this column, but I made an exception this week because this is such a special shop and it really does embody the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle and saves shoppers a great deal of money with reasonable prices. Tremblay provides excellent service. It’s a hometown business and I personally feel that we all need to support our local merchants to help them thrive and enhance our local economy.

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