Brett Meech brings old world charm to a new world of living

Sunlight spills into the kitchen and illuminates the butcher block counter tops and table layered with crocks and cutting boards. A large handwoven basket is perched on the top of the refrigerator; linen tea towels and napkins with gentle folds drape over the edge of a wooden dough bowl. It’s a perfectly curated kitchen for anyone with a love for the antique aesthetic. It’s a kitchen that tells a story. Not just for the objects of rarity that travelled far to a place on Nova Scotia’s south shore, but for its new human occupant who had his own journey and story to tell.

“When your kitchen is also your showroom you are motivated to keep things pretty tidy,” laughs Brett Meech. He lives on the second storey and operates his antique and home décor shop Conifer on the main floor of a house located near the corner of an odd intersection in the little town of Lunenburg, NS. Meech is the latest owner of the historic home that in recent decades housed a pottery shop. The building, boldly painted in burnt orange, trimmed in green and red with the classic “Lunenburg Bump” welcomes patrons looking for that special something that will bring an element of character to their own home.

Meech is one of a growing number of millennials who sees the beauty in the old and carefully curated. While many of his contemporaries still fill their homes with furniture that gets delivered in flat boxes and assembled by pictograms, Meech and others like him are turning to décor with more warmth and everlasting charm.

“The name Conifer comes from coniferous, the evergreen tree,” Meech explains. “The objects that I curate have stood the test of time.” While many of his clients are more established homeowner and designers, he says he is seeing more young people like himself with an interest in timeless pieces.

There is an aesthetic moving forward where every piece that you bring into your home has a story. It’s a new way of interpreting the modern minimalist style. Never buy something unless you absolutely love it. Then you will never have regrets.

Brett Meech at the open door to Conifer, his first bricks and mortar shop, in Lunenburg.

You don’t have to go far to find a dealer, auction, or shop to source east coast antiques.  A few years ago, when Meech made his first foray into buying antiques and selling alongside one of his mentors from a shop in Great Village, NS—not far from where he grew up in Truro—he saw an opportunity to source objects that couldn’t be found on the east coast.

With a business degree, an exchange program in France, several years of experience working at the upscale garden and décor shop Teatro Verde in the swanky Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto and a little over a year operating his first iteration of Conifer shop in the creamery extension of Masstown Market, Meech rolled the dice on a big investment. In February of 2020 he travelled to Europe and went on a shopping spree in unique antique markets. Most of his success was in Hungary. “I didn’t buy just to buy. I never do. I only bought what I loved, thinking that people back home would love them too. Everything I buy has to speak to me.”

The antiques must have done a lot of talking. Meech filled a huge container and started the process of shipping his finds across the Atlantic. His collection arrived in April when the world had started its COVID-19 pandemic lock down—just when he was hoping to ramp up business.

Riding out the pandemic was not an option. Like most entreprenuers, Meech needed to be creative. For two years he operated Conifer out of storage units in his hometown of Truro.  Gorgeous Instagram posts and a pre-pandemic following from the early days of Conifer at Masstown bolstered his success, but he did learn a few expensive lessons along the way. Transatlantic shipping and customs are not cheap.

Meech returned to Hungary last spring. He filled a few more containers, as stock was running low from his first trip. With a love for travel, he welcomes the trips to Europe to re-stock the shop.

While the storage units were a solid temporary solution and by-appointment shopping being normalized in the last few years, the young antique buyer was ready for his first real bricks and mortar shop. A big city might have been a more logical choice, especially with his connections in Toronto. But the pull of the East Coast is strong. After a few months scouting properties around Nova Scotia, Meech walked into the building on Lunenburg that is now his shop and, for now, residence.

“This place had everything I was looking for,” says Meech. “The wide pine planked floorboards, high ceilings, big windows with lots of light.
It has all of the charm I wanted.”

Two weeks after closing on the deal in mid-July and a couple of hot summer weekend painting parties, Meech was open for business.

After a few years of trying to be creative with displaying his merchandise that was stacked to the rafters he now sets up his shop much like the home it once was. 

“What I also love about this space is that it was once a real home. It has rooms. It allows me to display everything in a way that customers can visualize the piece in their own home. I love that I can just walk downstairs in the morning and be here.”

Only living with what you truly love sounds like a bit of a luxury. It also takes time to parse the things from your life that are only clutter or no longer serve you or maybe you just never loved it in the first place.

But Brett Meech seems to have the curated life down to a science. A very old science.