This week on ‘Behind The Door With’ I’m visiting one of Melbourne’s most famous bridal districts, High Street in Armadale. Every Saturday, High Street is packed with brides to be and their girlfriends hunting down that perfect dress. What they might not be expecting to find is the perfect place for their invitations too at The Paper Empire.
I’m excited to meet owner and creative director of The Paper Empire, Emily Anthon, who is kind enough to tell me all about her beautiful stationery store. Emily started the store four years ago after falling in love with all things paper at a part-time job she worked while finishing uni.
Emily ended up buying the business and moving to the new beautiful store she has today which was originally a physiotherapist. “It was not ideal for a paper store,” laughs Emily. “We had to paint the walls, redo the ugly bricks and even put in new flooring!”
Now the store is an inspiring space with gleaming white walls filled with shelves of custom invitations, craft items, specialty papers, cards and gift wrap.
The front is a welcoming retail space for picking up that perfect gift or stocking up on supplies for a special project, while the back houses a workshop style space for designing invitations and other custom pieces. Upstairs is the office and workroom which houses all the special tools and equipment the team need to create in-house stationery and even their own products.
“We like to keep the space downstairs really inspiring,” says Emily, “whether that’s creating new window displays or keeping stock fresh with new ideas and ways people can create things.” I love that while Emily and the team can create invitations for couples, they are also really encouraging those that want to DIY too! Emily tells me that they have lots of brides who pop in for engagement and wedding invites, thank you cards and then often a little bit later invites for first birthdays and christenings!
I ask Emily if they have anything new or exciting coming up and she tells me that they recently ran a very successful popup shop is Brisbane. “It was such a success,” says Emily, “and we had people asking for more stock and if we would be back soon.” Opening a store in Brisbane soon is definitely ‘on the cards’ and would be a dream come true for paper lovers in Brisbane that share Emily’s passion. Watch this space!
Images by The Paper Empire
Ms Chinoiserie Says: Such a treasure trove of beautiful invitations and paper craft – so wonderfully inspiring!
About Amelia Waddell of Make Your Day Wedding Styling: I’m a wedding stylist and proud store owner who loves to chat weddings with everyone and anyone! I love to talk shop with other business owners (particularly over some chocolate cake!) and am the first to try and have a sticky beak behind the scenes of any event. My free time is spent ‘investigating’ new cafes, stores and events.
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