Oohs & Aahs on Main Avenue plans to close on the last day of February.
After 23 years, Phyllis Burwell, the owner of the high-end furniture store and interior decorating service, plans to retire and enjoy her home and horses in Bayfield.
She opened the store in the early 1990s after she and her husband moved to the area from Houston in 1989, and she found no one filling the high-end home decor niche.
Burwell had experience as a bookkeeper, and she got her accounting degree in her 30s, but she didn’t use it until she opened her business.
She was inspired by her friend Shirley Crawford, who moved to Crested Butte a few years earlier and opened the first Oohs & Aahs there.
The two were partners until 2002 when Crawford died.
Burwell decided not to sell the business because it would have been a lengthy process, but she says it will be missed by many.
“I have had clients come in crying about us closing the store,” she said.
Customer service was a key to her success, and she is happy that so many people loved her store.
After she moves out, the space will likely be available for lease, she said.
Oohs & Aahs longtime designer Jackie Gillespie plans to go to work for Urban Market, Burwell said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
