RECHERCHÉ FINE HOME FURNISHINGS

Author: Dagmar Reinhard

Sophisticated. Stylish. Stunning. These three words immediately come to mind upon entering Coronado's new high-end furniture and home goods store. And maybe surprising should be a fourth. How DID this large, modern, eco-friendly, and impressive furniture store appear in our neck-of-the-woods in the Southern Zone? To find out the answer to this question, we interviewed the owners of Recherché. (Pronounced reh – share’ -shay.) Their answers conjured three new words: intelligent, inspired, and imaginative.

Blake Sawyer and Jerry Polansky are two of hundreds of ex-pats to make the Southern Zone their permanent residence recently. They came to Costa Rica via Austin, Texas, purchasing their first home in Ojochal in June of 2019. Later that year, they bought two brand-new luxury vacation rental homes in Uvita. As Jerry puts it, “It was so difficult to find any furniture or décor that we liked.

Even in the Central Valley. We spent weeks going to every so-called high-end store to furnish our two new vacation rentals.” Jerry continued, “Despite the downturn in the economy, supply chain issues, and huge freight increases, we decided to open a unique furniture store in the Southern Zone, to meet the needs of the thousands of new homeowners in the area.
My business partner has previously owned two very successful furniture stores and was an interior designer for the rich and famous. So we went for it!”

Blake’s concept of a successful furniture store is multi-faceted. He gives three significant differences:
1. As an architect and interior designer, I want to give our customers creative ideas through the vignettes in our store. These vignettes help clients visualize how unique and beautiful their homes can be. I use various colors, shapes, styles, and materials to create great living spaces with a delightful ambiance.
2. We sell only top-quality home furnishings. There are too many things to mention here, but a few examples are: We don’t sell particle-board furniture. Most people don’t know that over 10% of particle-board furniture is the toxic, flammable, and cancer-causing chemical formaldehyde. Another example is that we sell gorgeous zinc-covered tabletop furniture for indoor and covered outdoor use. If you’ve lived here for a while, you quickly discover all metals, including stainless-steel rusts. But zinc is the most resistant to rust of all the metals used in furniture.
3. We stock a large selection of one-of-a-kind art, pillows, kids plush, rugs, lamps, furniture, and home décor. With the supply chain issues and dramatic increase in shipping costs, there are no guarantees that we can import these eye-catching items ever again. Our motto is, “Buy NOW, or CRY later!”