Willow Glen Resident

Business

Biagini daughter returns, opens shop with designers on Lincoln

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

After a two-year hiatus, co-founder of Casa Casa Meg Picanco has returned to Lincoln Avenue with a new business.

"I really missed it," Picanco says. "I missed the energy and social aspect of it as well as the creative side of expressing myself through design."

Willow Glen Home and Garden, a furniture and accessories store, will open Nov. 9 in the former Fine Consign site and adjacent to the BevMo on Lincoln Avenue.

Picanco co-owned Casa Casa with her mother, Nancy Biagini, and sister, Katie Palacio, for 13 years. After Biagini sold the business in 2005, Picanco moved to Idaho to spend time at home with her children.

It was Picanco's flair for style and design that her sister credits with making Casa Casa a success. That passion never left Picanco and she was pulled back into the world of interior design.

"It's in your blood," she says. "My grandparents went to garage sales and refinished furniture. Even my 2-year-old son is particular about what goes in his room."

The interior designer moved back to Willow Glen and began to look for another opportunity to resurrect what her family had so meticulously created in the early 1990s on Lincoln Avenue.

She joined forces with two friends, Carmen Grande and Steve Gilbert, who are interior designers from Willow Glen. The three came up with the Willow Glen Home and Garden store concept.

"Some people get furniture from a grandmother or a sibling," Picanco says. "Some pieces come from department stores. We want to help make everything work."

The styles and prices at the new store range from contemporary to traditional, both imported and domestic. A shopper can choose a $3 wooden plate or a $4,000 custom sofa.

"We like to mix everything so it looks like people's homes," Gilbert says, "a little bit old and a little bit new."

Finding the right people with similar visions was just part of launching a new business. What brought it all together was the right location.

The group looked into various options, including Campbell, but the pull of their native neighborhood was too strong.

"We love Willow Glen," Picanco says. "We gotta be in Willow Glen."

The group found one location on Lincoln Avenue and began negotiations, but the deal fell through. Then luck struck, and when the former Fine Consign location became available, Picanco jumped at the chance.

"We love it," Gilbert says. "It's across from all the busy businesses and the growth of the avenue is here. We wanted to be an anchor business on this side of the avenue."

In addition to furniture and accessories, the store will also offer fountains and garden statuary.

The interior of the store, no longer a long rectangular white space, has been transformed into various nooks painted in autumn oranges, greens and yellows.

"The interior will change with the seasons in order to stay fresh and new," Grande says.

For Grande, the new store folds neatly into her former job at Casa Casa, where she was a store designer for 14 years.

"I loved being a designer at Casa Casa, and I felt like it was time to grow," Grande says. " I am fortunate to have two friends that love design."

Her motto for the store and design is simple.

"As much time we spend at home, you should love being there," Grande says. "Life is too short to live with white walls."

Willow Glen Home and Garden is located at 1123 Lincoln Ave. Store hours are Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 4 p.m. For more information, call 408.286.1400.