About GRACEiousliving...
Offering Unique Gift Ideas for Every Occasion, Personally Gift-Wrapped and Shipped.
GRACEiousliving was born 35,000 feet in the air on a cross-country flight back home to San Diego from an international buying trip. While the idea to create this branch of our business had been in our hearts for many years, the timing finally seemed right.
During that ten-hour flight, we brainstormed ways we could share our creative ideas and favorite things with a wider market. Our original business, which started back in 1953 as a basic hardware and feed store, has evolved over the years into a neighborhood home and gift destination. Our clean and simple style has resonated with our customers who often do a double-take when they visit our stores in San Diego. As they enter through the doors, they are surprised to find a gift boutique, paint studio and BBQ/outdoor living department all wrapped up in a traditional hardware store frame.
When we launched these specialty departments back in 1991, we had no idea the level of success they would achieve. At the time, we simply brought items into our stores that we would buy for our own homes, for our friends and for our own families. Our customers embraced the additions to our product mix and the business has grown substantially.
Traveling the world to discover unique Gifts and Decor
Now, we travel throughout the US and Europe several times each year to source products and vendors specifically for these collections. In 2020, we created an online branch for our business called GRACEiousliving, a virtual store and blog. This name pays tribute to our third-generation business — Griffin Ace Hardware. The family business was built by our parents and grandparents almost 70 years ago.
While the online store is only several years old, our mission for GRACEiousliving is the same as it always has been for our retail business: to inspire our customers with simple ideas, practical advice and unique products that bring joy and beauty to their lives.
About our team
We’re Kelly Hollingsworth and Stacey Jess. We’re sisters. Business owners. Travel Companions. Fitness compatriots. Moms and wives. We think alike. We talk alike. We embarrassingly even sometimes dress alike. It’s no wonder we share the same passion for travel, fitness, health, shopping, working, living and family. It is only natural that our dreams have grown from counting nuts and bolts in our grandfather’s hardware store to running the daily operations of our hardware and gift business today.
Our oldest sister, Shannon Carney, is the level-headed leader who charts the course for our business. Her strong financial and business expertise complement our creative projects and energy. This ensures the continued success of our brick and mortar stores. We count on her to be the rational mind, but what we love most about Shannon is her ability to shift gears so quickly into happy hour.
What the three of us ‘Griffin Girls’ do have in common is a passion for building our business and bringing unique products and services to our customers. In this spirit, we look forward to continuing the legacy our parents and grandparents built into the next decade.
We’re so excited you’ve stumbled upon our newest adventure. We just can’t wait to get to know you better and would love to learn about you and what you love! Please feel free to reach out anytime.