Kate and George Lawes don’t believe everything has to match.
At Kudzu Archives, an 18th-century chest can sit beside something from the 1940s. A polished French vitrine can share space with simple country church pews. Midcentury modern and old-world European pieces coexist comfortably. “It was really freeing to mix it up and let things coexist,” Kate says.
That idea, that interesting things don’t need to come from the same period, place, or style to belong together, has shaped how Kate and George curate Kudzu. It also helped inspire Kudzu Archives, a 26,000-square-foot warehouse almost directly across from Kudzu Antiques + Modern on E. Ponce de Leon Avenue. “We do share a love of the quirky,” Kate says.
Emily Costley, Kate and George’s daughter and general manager of Kudzu Antiques + Modern, says her parents often bring different tastes and ideas to the table. Those differences, she says, have helped shape the business over the years.
“They are not afraid to disagree with one another,” Emily says. “In fact, they often butt heads in a way that forces them to revisit an idea or how they’re going to implement something, and it leads to an even better result.”
Founded by Kate’s mother in 1979, Kudzu has continued to evolve through generations, locations, and changing tastes. Its latest chapter grew from more than 15 years of Kate and George traveling through Europe to buy antiques and vintage pieces, often finding more than they had room to bring home. “We never have the room, the capacity to buy at the volume we really want to buy,” George says.
Then the warehouse across the street became available. George says the building housed Studebaker auto parts in the 1930s and later operated as a machine shop. The couple spent about a year cleaning, restoring, and renovating the space before opening Kudzu Archives in August. Studebaker signage and a historic photograph inside the building nod to its earlier life. “It’s been great because it’s been such a journey,” Kate says. “We didn’t have this plan.”
The expanded space also changed what they could bring back from Europe. Instead of just one container of pieces each year, they can now bring in eight or more.
The buying trips themselves are less glamorous than “antiquing in Europe” might suggest. “We’re up at 4 in the morning at an antique fair in the cold,” George says, laughing. There are negotiations, shipping, and the complicated logistics of getting furniture and objects safely across an ocean.
Their travels have taken them through England, France, Denmark, Sweden, and beyond, building relationships with dealers along the way. “It’s really the people, the contacts you make, the people you seek out, that make it work,” Kate says. The result is a collection centered on European antiques and Scandinavian midcentury modern pieces, from furnishings more than 100 years old to clean-lined pieces from the 1950s and ’60s.
“People just see charm in different things,” Kate says. For her, that might mean a French Louis XVI vitrine, a Welsh dresser, or one of her favorite pieces, a French clerk’s desk. For someone else, it may be a church pew or industrial lighting made from old farming equipment.
At Archives, all of those things are allowed to live together. The cavernous space is designed around discovery. Instead of permanent interior walls, the Kudzu team created pathways through the open space based on years of watching how people move through stores.
Archives offers local designers and antique lovers a new resource, while giving anyone the chance to wander, explore, and discover an unexpected piece for their home. Around one turn you might find a formal European cabinet or centuries-old grain bin; around another, a Scandinavian chair, a church confessional, or an antique foosball table. The mix is intentional. Rather than organizing the warehouse into rigid periods or styles, Kate and George want visitors to notice what catches their eye and imagine pieces in combinations they might not have considered before.
George says the goal is bigger than simply selling furniture. “We believe in providing an experience,” he says. “It doesn’t matter whether they buy anything or not. We just want to be a place where people say, ‘I really enjoyed going there.’”
For Kate, that feeling is more emotional. “I really operate from the heart,” she says, “and I want it to feel like a warm hug when you walk in here.” That sense of connection extends to the objects themselves.
“Life is about stories, and every piece in here has a story,” George says. “We hope people will find a little story to take home with them occasionally.”
kudzuarchives.com
2935 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur
"It was really freeing to mix it up and let things coexist." Kate Lawes