Furniture stores may come and go, but not many transform from a large-scale retail operation into an intimate, one-of-kind showroom.
Mitrani at Home did just that, as husband-and-wife team Albert Mitrani and Donna Orbach opened their cozy, upscale furniture showroom in downtown Camp Hill last September, just months after closing their towering furniture retail store and warehouse on Walnut Street in Susquehanna Township.
The couple shut the retail site after 10 years partly because the building was for sale and neither wanted to buy it, Mitrani said. “Personal reasons” also were a factor, he noted.
“We thought we would leave the furniture business when the other store closed,” said Orbach, who’s designed living spaces for countless Mitrani customers. “I thought I would just do detail work after this.”
The move to Camp Hill, she stated, “was accidental.”
It started when Albert Mitrani took up yoga at the Just Plain Yoga Studio in Camp Hill in a building that includes the One Good Woman gift and coffee shop. Mitrani liked the building’s “really good vibe” and that businesses worked in tandem with each other, his wife recalled. It wasn’t long before Mitrani decided that he wanted to join them.
Magical Place
Stop by the new Mitrani showroom, and you’ll find items like vividly hued flat weave rugs and folk-art pottery bowls imported from Turkey. You’ll see living room tables designed from the beautifully rich roots of teakwood trees. There are antiques, artisan jewelry, books and other fine gifts.
“I think it’s a magical place,” said customer Ellen Kramer of Harrisburg. “They make living spaces that are easy and comfortable.”
For a long-time patron like Kramer, items like a one-of-a-kind coffee table from France keep her coming back.
“I fell in love with that coffee table as soon as I saw it, but I really didn’t need it,” she said. “I’d never seen anything like it. It was the sort of thing you’re never going to see again.”
Naturally, she ended up buying it.
Jamie Fulkroad’s favorite Mitrani purchase is a waterfall desk by Keno Bros., the twin-brother designer team known for appearances on PBS’s “Antiques Road Show.”
“The desk looks like one continuous piece of wood. I just love it,” enthused Fulkroad of Susquehanna Township.
Linda McKay was entranced by Mitrani’s four-foot wide “Spaceship” light fixture with tiny glass panels. It now hangs in her home.
“Their stuff is so interesting,” said McKay of Mechanicsburg. “Albert got us a beautiful antique rug from Turkey, too. Once you start shopping there, you can’t stop.”
Amazing Eye
Mitrani, a native of Turkey, regularly travels across the globe as an international salesman for American Leather furniture, which is sold in the Camp Hill showroom. During his travels, Mitrani always keeps an eye open for unusual home items that might captivate showroom customers back home.
“This is a very, very different experience from the retail store,” said Orbach. “We feature great prices and turn over our store inventory in eight weeks so people always can come back and see what’s new. Most furniture stores have become like warehouses. This is a very intimate shopping experience. We try so hard to figure out how people live so we can give them exactly what they want.”
Mitrani deals more with the business’ day-to-day operations, Orbach said, while she focuses more on design aspects. When Kramer and husband Shalom Staub moved into their home as newlyweds seven years ago, they commissioned Orbach and her “eye” for a designer’s walkthrough.
“She has an amazing ability to step back and see things others don’t see,” Kramer said.
McKay recalled how Orbach redecorated her entire house, room by room, over the course of several years.
“We bought a semi-circle couch, and Donna recommended a game table to go with it that was really beautiful,” she said. “I never would have thought of doing that, but it really brought the room together. Then she found great chairs that really complemented our lighting.”
When Fulkroad envisioned a painting of a man, woman and dog hanging in her home, Orbach managed to commission exactly that from an artist in Florida.
“Albert and Donna are wonderful people,” Fulkroad said. “We are very lucky to know them.”
Apparently, the feeling is mutual.
“We genuinely like getting to know people the people who come here,” Orbach said. “We consider them our friends.”
Mitrani at Home is located at 1845 Market St., Camp Hill (entrance on 19th Street). For more information, call 717-526-7930 or visit www.mitraniathome.com.
