Kristen Alcorta hadn’t planned on becoming a photo stylist and interior designer when she opened her Falls Church antiques shop, Pursuing Vintage, in 2017. The evolution just sort of happened.
It started when other designers began asking her to pull distinctive home accessories from her boutique to help tie their projects together. Next she was styling shoots for magazines like This Old House, including a recent cover. In January, she finally launched her own interior design business, Kristen Alcorta Interiors.
Her home furnishings shop is entirely online now, thanks to Covid, but Alcorta plans to keep it going and keep it fresh with a curated selection of things she loves—like a recently featured pair of brass-based candlesticks with groovy Lucite accents. She gravitates toward objects with “a little bit of mid-century flash, ’60s and ’70s flair” as well as baskets, boxes, vases and vessels featuring blue-and-white designs. Soon she’ll be adding nonvintage wares like throw blankets and custom pillows to the mix.
Prices vary wildly, as one would expect with retro finds, but a recent peek at her collection showed home accessories ranging from $15 to $175.
“When I had the brick-and-mortar [shop] I would pull in some furniture pieces,” says Alcorta, who lives in Arlington with her husband and two children, “but being online, that’s not a direction I’m going anymore.”
These days, she observes, many folks who are bored with their surroundings are updating draperies and rugs rather than going for a full overhaul with new furniture. She’s also seeing clients incorporating the Grandmillennial style, which she describes as “bringing back a lot of those things that maybe were stylish from your grandma’s house,” such as rattan, florals and rich woods.
“People are…mixing patterns and colors, which is more that retro sort of feel,” Alcorta says. “If it’s done well, it’s fun and it’s vibrant and it’s a little bit nostalgic, which is I think what people like about it.”