LANDRUM – Toby Wolter has opened a new business near the Harvest House Restaurant at 22349 Asheville Hwy. by the state line called Details Luxury Home Furnishings, featuring Mexican and South American decorative pieces.

The business came about after Wolter said he had a hard time finding good tenants to rent the building. This lead Wolter to ultimately decide to use the building, which is zoned as a commercial building, as a retail store at the beginning of this year.

“I actually bought this building 10 years ago and lived in Florida at the time,” Wolter said. “My original intention was to find some good tenants, rent it out and possibly do some real estate in Asheville. But, this building was renovated in 2009, which was not a good year after the housing market crash. I had a really difficult time finding some good tenants and a couple of taverns have been in this space. Four years ago, I came up again to either find a good tenant or do something myself.”

While living in Miami before the housing market collapse, Wolter said he noticed the housing market there was beginning to feel “overheated” as he was a real estate agent at the time. He began to venture outside of Florida and started slowly migrating towards Tryon.

“Ultimately, I decided at the beginning of this year that I would put a little business together myself,” Wolter said. “I’ve lived in a lot of different places, in Europe and all up and down the East Coast. My brother lives in Mexico and he has a design business down there and it has a lot of good sources and companies that manufacture for him. So, we put our heads together, and it’s a collaboration of things.”

The store has furniture and decorative pieces imported from Mexico as well as items built by Wolter himself and local artists. Wolter said he has a clay studio in the building and lives on the upper floor of the store.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things, and the concept is to basically have a business that caters to designers, architects, retail stores in different parts of the country but keep it open to the public two days a week,” Wolter explained. “This is why Fridays and Saturdays are my days in because I didn’t really want to be a shopkeeper and you know how the retail business can get. It’s too small a market to do anything on a big scale.”

The store is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by appointment. Inquiries can be made by calling Wolter at 305-215-8629 or emailing tobywolter@yahoo.com.