Gracie is All in the Family

When siblings Jennifer and Michael Gracie decided to open doors outside Manhattan for the first time in their family’s business since 1898, they knew there would be challenges. Gracie is known for its exquisitely handcrafted, custom wallpaper. But Gracie also offers a line of custom lacquer furniture and a curated selection of Asian antiques.

It was the transfer of said furniture and antiques that posed some problems for the grand opening in Dallas. “We’d gotten quotes for a moving truck,” Jennifer says. “To insure everything and truck it here was going to be a lot. I was just shocked.” So she called her son and her boyfriend and asked, “How would you like a little bonding experience?” The duo moved items from Manhattan’s D&D Building all the way to the Dallas Design Center without a hitch. “It worked out great. Everything showed up. Nothing was broken, and nothing was cracked. Of course, they’ll probably never do it again,” she says with a laugh.

Much of that first shipment has already sold, and the Gracies couldn’t be more excited about their new Design District location. “This really is a destination for designers and their clients to come. The way it’s evolving is really, really cool,” she says.

Jennifer says that anything you can get in their New York showroom, you can get here. That also works the other way. “I ended up selling a piece in Dallas to a client in New York who came in looking for a Buddha,” she says.