By Allison Kronberg/Murphy News Service

“This was always my passion. I just never thought I could do it for a living.” — Coral Stewart, shop owner. Her business is on the upswing in Lake Forest, Minn. Photos courtesy of Coral Stewart.

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When Coral Stewart couldn’t pay her mortgage she decided try to renovate some of her furniture and sell the end results on craigslist.com. And she did it the next year, after her day-care and hair-stylist jobs left her just a little short again.

About 13 years later, Stewart is making  a business out of what used to help her just get by. Shoppers in Forest Lake, come to her upcycled furniture and décor store, Coral Stewart’s Shop, and nearly empty it out during the first Thursday to Sunday of every month.

“This was always my passion,” Stewart said. “I just never thought I could do it for a living.”

She bought the business’ first location outside of Blaine a couple of years ago. Stewart put an advertisement on craigslist looking for other furniture renovators to share the space and sell their goods.

That’s how Beth Gamache, one of the 16 venders who works for Stewart, started selling at the store.

“I thought maybe it’s time to jump in and do it as a hobby and make a little extra money,’” she said.

Gamache remodels “smalls,” she said, or smaller décor items such as picture frames. It started as a hobby with her daughter outside of her work as an art and health director at a senior living community.

She’s learned a lot since her first sale with Stewart, where she only made about $100. Now she usually makes eight or nine times that each sale.

She said moving to the new location has helped, too.

“In Forest Lake, people seem to be looking for the highest quality upcycled goods,” Gamache said, “and they’ll pay a little extra for it.”

She wants Forest Lake to become a destination for people who are shopping for reclaimed items.

Stewart always wanted to move to Forest Lake, she said, so she bought a building there as soon as she could afford it.

“It’s just a more hometown feel there,” Stewart said.

Coral Stewart’s Shop opened in September at 767 Lake Street S., taking the place of what used to be the Dazy Maze, a smoke shop and blown-glass store.

Stewart, who still lives in Blaine, said her store has something for everyone.

“We get every probably walk and style of life in [the shop],” she said. “It’s everything from college kids to people with lake homes.”

Prices vary from $1 to $400, with more on the cheaper end, she said. Styles include Mid-century modern, antique and vintage.

Stewart also takes requests, she said.

One of the store’s frequent customers, stay-at-home mom of five Karla Rud said her 5-year-old twins love cowboys right now, so she asked Stewart to be on the lookout for cowboy-themed furnishings.

Stewart has remembered to let her know every time she comes across a cowboy-related item, just the way she remembers her frequent customers’ names, Rud said.

And Rud’s twins aren’t the only ones in the house who like what Stewart has made for them. Rud recently bought a refurbished ladder from Stewart over which to hang her grandmother’s afghan.

The furniture is her style, Rud said.

“I’ve never fit into a box very well as far as the things that I enjoy and like to look at,”she said. “’I thought, this is more the type of thing I like — reusing things and looking at them in a different way.”

Reporter Allison Kronberg is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.