Susan & Don Charlet - STV: 24

Marc welcomes Susan and Don Charlet for a lovely conversation about their 35-year marriage, their creative life together, and the beautiful spaces they’ve helped bring to life in St. Francisville. From The Corbel to historic restorations and beloved local businesses, they reflect on architecture, antiques, community, and the joy of making a town more beautiful.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to See the Ville. Today we have a two-for-wonner. We have Don and Susan Charlet who are coming upon their 40th anniversary. And if anybody knows this very youthful couple, it's hard to believe that they've been married for 40 years. No, they've been dating for since their this is the anniversary of their first date. How long have you been married? 35 years. Thank you for being my guest today. They own the famous shop in St. Francisville, and it was on Highway 61 for a very long time. And you know, I went in there and I was just so amazed by it. I felt like I was somewhere else, transported. It's it's called the Corbell, um, and it's uh a wonderful store that sells both antiques, architectural features. Now it sells new furnishings, art, porcelain. I mean, it's a home goods store, but very high-end, and it's just lovely. And let me tell you something that they did. I mean, they could do it much better than I could, but I I love this. That, well, Brandon and Jim moved to St. Francisville, and they're the guys that owned the St. Francisville Inn, and you've heard Brandon talk. And uh they really did kind of anchor the whole area when they did that. And then Don and Susan, I guess you had owned that property, and then you renovated all of that space. They were literally, they look like uh bombed-out areas. They were nothing to look at, and it just was a blight area, and they're renovated and rebuilt and beautiful, and lined up in that one area is a wonderful uh Hotel Toussaint, which is a beautiful uh area that is a it's rented through the Southern Hospitality uh group, which is run by St. Francisville Inn, Louisiana Hospitality Group, and it's decorated by your daughter. And it's quite daughter-in-law, and quite beautiful. And then they own the Corbel, which, as I mentioned, is a really beautiful uh furnishing shop. It's you feel like you're transported when you go there. I mean, St. Francisville is charming, but this really did put some taste on the map here that was more than just traditional Southern. This is a really fantastic place. And then they have a wonderful entertainment, uh hospitality, wedding reception, convention, and also a church on Sunday for their new congreg their congregation meets there. And it's called the Mallory, and it's fantastic. I've been there for several events. And not only that, but they also have a big green space where they planted a live oak, and they have this what do you call, what do you call that uh building? Pavilion. The pavilion, which is used for display and for other things, and it's wonderful. And then they also own uh what is it, tell me the Cajun name and what it is. We have a men's clothing shop called Deo, Deo, which means outdoor and Cajun French, and then Barlow is and then Barlow and beautiful clothing, really very high-end, lovely, lovely to have that here. You know, it's you go to the tractor supply and they have slacks and flannel, or you go to Deo and you can get some fine duds. Exactly. It's really, really wonderful. And uh I just it's just a real treasure. And I love that I can bring my friends and people that visit over there to just stroll and shop. And there's always something new to see. And they go to Europe three times a year and they have these wonderful exhibitions of all the things they bring back. And so they kind of a constant revolving shop of of uh not shop, but of new inventory, which is uh usually antiques and or very unique individual pieces, and they have architectural elements, like the best door uh selection you've ever seen. Um, if you watch Brandon Branch's Instagram story, he always is walking around his home. And if you notice, all of those beautiful doors in his home are from uh the Corbell. And uh, well, I I don't want to keep talking. Let me ask you all. So, how long has the Corbell been in business? And was the 61 the Don? Was 61 the first shop?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah, so the Corbel started on Highway 61 in 2003. Um, and it was opened by Susan and I and my brother and sister-in-law, Brent and Kim Charlet. And really, we opened the Corbel with the idea to support our custom construction business.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Um, I didn't even mention that. Yes, they they're in construction and they do the most beautiful projects.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

We do. We we've had the opportunity to do some amazing things through the years, and we're so thankful for that. But we uh when we first got started, you know, we um we we kind of had a style of our own and we knew what we liked to build, um, but we needed, you know, we needed a funnel for customers to come through. And we felt like if we built a place that kind of resounded who we were and what we were all about, and we sold architectural salvage and antique building materials and all the things that we liked that people would come and they would see it and they would think it was beautiful and they'd want us to build their home. And so that's that's why we built the Corbel was really to funnel business to our our um our construction business, and it's kind of the other way around.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Isn't that funny? We had Susan Davis on, who was the proprietor of Grandmother's Buttons, and she said she opened grandmother's buttons in her kitchen because she didn't want to have to drive to Baton Rouge every day to work. And I said, Well, with grandmother's buttons, she wound up traveling the world to shop. And she's thinking funny the way things turn around. That's right. Exactly. So, Susan, what do you I see you every day blowing the sidewalk and doing all and she's so lovely. She's this really pretty blonde lady, and she just is one of these do-it-all kind of people. You see her walking a dog, and she's always busy. So, what do you do with the Corbel mostly?

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Well, Don and I do all the buying for the Corbel, um, whether it's going to market, you know, in Atlanta, New York, or Dallas or to Europe. Um, but I love to be outside. So now that we have the green space, I'm messing with plants, pots. Um I don't know. I just like things to look nice and pretty and clean.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

I mean, it's just a world difference. And then, of course, Margan and Lindsay from the Moss from the Myrtles plantation own uh the pizza polar next door. Uh Big River Pizza. Big River Pizza. So the whole place and then you got the the brewery. The brewery next door, that whole area has been just completely revital. I'm hoping it happens next door to the bird man, like that's trip.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Yes, and go down the street for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

To the post office, yeah. That would be so nice. That would be all of all all of Commerce Street. So tell me something. You're doing the house on Royal, which is a historic home. This home is so interesting. I do a tour as I keep plugging called The Ghost of Bayusera, and it's one of the favorite spots because it's so interesting. It started as a one-room store, and they did well in 1809 or 1819, I forget. And they did well, and then they built a Greek revival story and a half building next door, and then they did even better, and they built a townhouse. So now from this one-room store, you have a a mansion, which is really interesting. And you all just uh I guess you're getting to the end of it at this point.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

So we we just finished phase one, which was the house proper. Um, and you're right, it it was the construction of what is there now, started in, I believe, 1755 and went all the way to 1855. 1855, but 17, maybe, maybe 1785 to 55 to 1855. But all those different iterations that all made up the one building that's there right now that we've just completely brought back to brought it back to what it was in its day and then some. Um, and it was uh it it's it's the most interesting project that I've been a part of um as far as a historic remodel.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Tell me something. Can you see those original? Can you see where they transitioned from what must be so interesting?

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Yeah, we um we got we got really dirty with that house. You know, it um it had a lot of structural issues that we had to address. Um the homeowners um wanted to have something that would last for another 150 years uh whenever they finished. And so that's what we endeavored to do, and that's what we did.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

And they were looking for something very special for quite a while. So it was perfect that they got that point.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

They're they're the perfect owners for this, and um, they were the perfect clients to work for that really had the vision to bring it back to to what it once was, and then some. And so magnificent. Bringing all the plaster walls back, um, you know, all of the fixtures, the the flooring, the I mean, just I mean, all of the elements.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

We what is the square footage of that place, you think?

SPEAKER_00 9:49

It's it's around 4,500 square feet of that's remarkable.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Yeah. So if you hear outside, that's because we're having a rainstorm and Ellen has a tin roof, but we find it charming. I hope it doesn't interrupt anyone's train of thought. Sorry. Music to my ears. I love it. Let's all take a nap. So, Susan, uh you have such beautiful women's clothing.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Are you uh involved in in that shopping?

SPEAKER_01 10:20

And I am. I do the buying for Barlow, and apparel market is a little bit more consuming than the corbul. I have to go to market like six times a year for barlow.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

You really have a look though, which is interesting. I mean, it's like it's you really have a definite style, which is lovely. It's uh thank you. It's crisp, it's comfortable, but it's kind of elegant. I think that's really nice. And then you also have some really fun things.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

I think so too. So um it it's a lot of work, you know, just going to market all the time. But we have a um a girl named Stephanie that um is running it, and she's amazing. She's a retired school teacher, she's very organized, and I mean she's just she's truly amazing. So she makes it a lot easier um to do it.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

And um, you do the um men's store? John Luke and I buy all the clothing for the men's store. Um Susan and I both have a little bit of a background in retail, but while we're at college at LSU, we I worked at Todd Garland and she worked at RFD, which were boutique men's and women's clothing. Um, and uh and we uh we actually worked there together for a time. But um, but yeah, uh learned a lot about retail working there and um learned a lot about clothing and um you know and tailoring and all the things that goes into that. And so um, so yeah, we uh we love that. We love it. It's it's a great it's a great part of completing um, you know, just making all things beautiful, which is kind of our mantra for all of our businesses. You know, we want to make we want to make people look beautiful, we want to make people's weddings beautiful, we want to make people's homes beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Um, and so it just kind of that's the that's the blood that flows through all our businesses is just and speaking of weddings, um, you have Mallory, which is a wonderful new well, it's really not a new edition any longer because it's been here for what almost three years. Almost three years. Almost three years. So how what made you think of that? How did you come along with that idea?

SPEAKER_00 12:24

You know, um, as um business people, it probably wasn't the best business decision to make, but as um people who were concerned about the community and what the community needs were, it probably was the best thing we could have done for our community um in opening an event center that could house more than 120 people. But because because before that, um there was literally nowhere that you could have any type of event indoors.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

And you were totally dependent on it being pretty weather because everything was outside.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Exactly. Which, as you know, we're in Louisiana and we don't always have great weather. And so um, so we we just thought we need we need a place for our community to be able to have weddings and parties and balls and events.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

And considering that most of that was done at Hemmingbow, which is now no longer because it's being turned into a right a senior living place, it's really lucky how advantageous that it's here.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

It is, and it just um we we've always felt like downtown St. Francisville had everything that it needed except for that, you know, and and you know, it's got great shops, it's got great hotels, I mean, it's it's got great events, it's got great restaurants, it's got great great people. But, you know, if you want to have an event that's not outdoors or not dependent on good weather, it just doesn't have that. So that's I mean, like that's that was just our thinking. And um how many can attend a sir uh situation there? It's it's 750 people max. That's a lot of people. Yeah, it's a lot, it's a lot, and it's comfortable.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

I've been there when it hasn't been real, real crowded, and then I've been there when it's really crowded, and it all you have a good flow.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

We haven't, I don't, I don't feel like we've maxed it out yet as far as an event that we've had. You know, we've had a couple of events that have been like 600 people, and it's it's been great.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

And you know, people were really worried about parking, I remember initially, but that's not been a problem.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

It's just like all the other events that we have in St. Francisville, you know, lots and lots of people come and we have plenty of streetside parking, and people find a place to park, and they don't walk walk more than a hundred yards to get to wherever they're going.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Exactly. And what's so nice is the mallory is situated in the center of everything. So you could stay at the inn or at the Hotel Toussaint. Hotel Toussaint, uh, and you can eat, you know, take a trolley to the Myrtles to eat, or eat at the inn, or Petra, or so many places are just so central to that. A lot of times people are surprised because they'll say, Oh, where is this? Oh, where is that? And I say, Everything's like five minutes from here, and it's remarkable.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

It is convenient, fun. Um you can drink and walk, you don't have to drink and drive. So it's just it's just nice.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

So, Susan, you all have a beautiful home on Ferdinand. When did you finish that?

SPEAKER_01 15:31

We finished that one in 2020, COVID. Yeah, December of 2020.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

And where did you all live before that?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

In Zachary, which is about 20 minutes away.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

So Don's mom grew up here in St. Francisville, she's one of the Bennett's.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

There were nine kids, and she was number eight. Oh, all right. And so Randy and Ruthie that live to the left of us, they own the widow Ross house. They sold us that little parcel of land.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Your home is just so beautiful. Thank you. And it is very I don't want to use the word typical, it doesn't sound proper enough, but it has it definitely has like the Charlie look. I mean it's able I make bread pudding occasionally, and I remember delivering y'all bread pudding, and I was able to go in and see it. It's just beautiful. Thank you. And we remember eating it. So what is your favorite, Susan? Your favorite aspect of all of these things? Like if you had to only do one, what do you like best?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Gosh, I would have to say the corbal.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

It's just And what about the corbels do you like the most?

SPEAKER_01 16:37

I just love that we have antique furniture and we have upholstered furniture now, and we have a state jewelry in there now though we've started buying. Um, the lighting, I just love the feel of it. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

It's just she loves gardening.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

I love gardening. I do love that, but I just I don't know, maybe because the corbel was the first, you know, Donna and I started that with Britt and Kim. I just it's probably my favorite place to be.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

It's just it's so fresh and crisp, and when you walk in, you just you feel good. And I love the layout of the place where you have that the big center area where you you do business. It is. I mean, the area where you can shop the doors is remarkable. It is.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

That's really nice. But because before on Highway 61, it was a typical kind of salvage place.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

I mean, it's nice and clean, but right, right.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

But in the summertime, it could be crazy hot, or in the wintertime it's really cold. So the fact that it's air conditioned is really nice.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

A lot of people, when I'm in the corbel, I'll overhear shoppers and they always want to know where these doors come from. So where do they come from? Like how do you shop for doors?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

So all all of our doors um, I would say are at a bare minimum French inspired. And they all come from overseas. There's there's um we don't sell really any domestic doors. Even though we might, you know, we might help some people out with some domestic doors, we don't really show many domestic doors. All of our doors come across the seas on on a container. Um about half of our doors are from France, and about the other half are from Egypt. And those doors are French because the French were actually in Egypt for about a hundred-year period um where they, you know, they lived, they vacationed, they built homes, and all those buildings now in Egypt are coming down. And so those doors and those pieces of architectural salvage that the French built with their French carpenters and their French wood and their French design are all coming down. And so, um Well, that's kind of sad to hear. Have you been to Egypt? Where we don't we don't go to Egypt. It's not the place at them. I mean, they're just distributors in France. That's so we so we do have other competitors in the the architectural salvage business. Uh, there are other people in the world and in the United States that sell doors that are French um and that are antique, like we do, but there we don't have any competitors that have the selection that we do. No, you really don't. And the reason that we don't is because most of our competitors um have a buyer in Egypt, they buy a whole container of doors and they kind of get what they get, okay? Um, which means they get about 70% of doors that that are actually usable. And of that 70%, most of those doors are going to be just a plain panel door, which is what's most of the things are coming out of Egypt are. Um, but they don't get the cream of the crop. And so years ago when we started doing this, uh uh, we decided not to go that route. We decided not to go the route of just buying a whole container from Egypt and getting what we get. We decided that we wanted to pick every door that we get. And so we get the cream of the crop. We've we have uh pickers that buy in Egypt and have been buying in Egypt for years and years, uh uh. And we get first look at all of their doors. And so we basically take the cream off the top of the milk. We we get the best designs, and we buy those designs, and that's what we show to our customers. And so um, and the same way for France, there are very, very few uh antique doors that actually come down in France, that come off of buildings in France. And so um we we get we get most of those, believe it or not. I mean, like there are very few other people in the world that get as many doors out of France as we do that are can I ask you what is the wood usually? So doors that are from France are either going to be French pine or French oak. Um and it's it's very easily identifiable. Um and there are a couple of species of pine that they have. Um one of them they call pitch pine, which is a darker colored pine. And it's very heavy. Um and then the other one is almost a white pine. It looks kind of like spruce. Uh-huh. And uh the what I'm suggesting to you is that most of these doors uh were uh always uh they were they were usually painted. Uh-huh. So people didn't know what species they were until they stripped that paint off. Um many of these doors have been painted, you know, like 20, 30, 40 times um and have just layer upon layer of paint. Um but but uh we strip them most of the time and expose that original wood. Uh huh. Um and actually the finer doors out of France are made with multiple species to avoid uh expansion and contraction at the same rate.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah. And so you'll find doors that are the structural members are made out of oak. The decorative members would be made out of like a um some type of pine. And then the panels that are flat would be made out of a maple.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

And when they have that kind of uh unfinished but finished look, what is the what is the finish on those?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Is it polyurethane or we recommend people either use a clear wax, uh a hand rub wax, or use a water-based um loching satin matte, flat uh finish. Um and either one of those will will basically preserve that natural color of of the wood after it's been stripped.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

That's a lot of work, man.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

It's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun. And it's and it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

How long does a door with you know seven coats of paint sit in the the stripper tank?

SPEAKER_00 22:54

I'm gonna tell you what, that's that's the tough part. It takes it takes a lot of time, it takes heat, it takes chemicals, and it takes labor to get the old paint off. And um is that done inside? It is done inside. It must be really how do you get it?

SPEAKER_01 23:10

It's open.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Yeah, we have a big vat and we have ventilation and um it's we have a catch basin to catch anything that drips off of it, and it's it's uh it's yeah, it's quite a it's quite a process to to strip doors and do it right. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Susan, tell us about I love this story, tell us about the shutters in the pavilion.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Well Don't look so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Well, Don might be able to tell you better, but yeah, um so those um so we used to go to church at Plains Presbyterian Church in Zachary, which is one of the oldest churches in Zachary. It's a very old building, very cool, Hayes Town. And the building, when you look at it, just has this massive height, and it has these massive high, like I I want to say the windows are like 11 foot tall in in the building, in the church. And so it always had these shutters that flanked. And so that church maintained those shutters for years and years and years and years, and then shortly after we moved to St. Francisville, the deacons of that church knew that I was in the salvage business and but also knew I I could not stand for something to be thrown away or not used that could still get some life out of it. And they were like, we've gotten all the life we can out of these shutters. Would would you like to take them and do something with them? And I was like, I have got the perfect thing, but I'm years away from it. And so they one of the deacons actually stored them for me for as long as he could, and then we went and picked them up and stored them. Then we stripped them, repaired them, and used them on the pavilion. How long did you have them off before you went into the we had them for about five years before we actually put them on? I designed the pavilion around those shutters. It's just beautiful. Yeah. So and they operate, don't they? They're no, they don't operate. But they're fully louvered. Yeah. They they do allow ventilation. And what year is that church? That's a good question. I I would say that that church, so the original church burned down on that site. I don't think so. I think that church is early 1900s.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Um it's older than that.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

No, Hayes Town designed that church. The previous church was older.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

You mean the where the shutters came from was there? Where the shutters came from.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Yeah. Do you think he used all shutters or did they build those shutters? No, he built them. Yeah, because they're cypress. Um and you know, I mean, like they're some people might but not be able to tell, but they're they're they're sinker cypress. Um they're very he used very good materials building things.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

Well, everybody remember if and when you visit St. Francis, and that shouldn't be an if, it should be a when. Go and look at the pavilion, and you'll know it. It's across the street from our Parker Park, and there's a large uh grass area. What do you call that? Just a green space. Well, it's so lovely. Big courtyard. It's got kind of a European feel too. It does. And then there's a beautiful live oak, which is young but quite majestic in its own little way. And beyond that is this pavilion, and they have this remarkable arrangement of these shutters, and it's just so unique. Thank you. And you had that in your mind. That's really something. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Yeah, I love I love using old stuff in a in a in a good way.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

So I do too. Do you all clutter, you ever think? Were you all clutterers or savers too much?

SPEAKER_00 26:53

We don't, we don't.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

I'm a purger.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

We uh we we put things to use pretty quickly. Um we do we do not have much that sits around.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

What have you found surprising about where are where are most of your uh like furniture shoppers from?

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Golly. Um, Mark, now we sell furniture all over the United States just because we have such a huge following. Um and so we ship furniture to New York, to, I mean, we've got a piece going to Montana this week. We've got California, I mean, like literally all over the U.S. We we've never we've never shipped anything overseas. Um, you know, but I imagine that's maybe next on the horizon, but um, but it really goes all over. I would say that probably um our truest customer is most true to like our style, which is very Louisiana. Um and so like Lafayette people, I would say we have the most concentration of furniture customers in Lafayette.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

And then you mentioned earlier they're also in Lake Charles.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah, the whole all of South Louisiana really, really supports the Corbel a lot. I mean, we we just we really have a big following there.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

One of my favorite things that you do are the fabulous porch beds. They're porch swings, but they're they're like beds. I mean, that's the most fabulous. And you know, I haven't seen other people really doing that. I'm glad that it it's your thing. You know, it hasn't been copied a lot, which is really nice. And they're beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

So they're very special. They are special. Yeah, we designed those and built those and same thing, though, ship them all over the United States.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

Well, I've said this before, visiting is my favorite sport, so I could just do this all day. But we keep this about a half an hour just for our listeners, and also not to wear you all out, because I know you came from a very busy day and are going back to one. So I want to thank you so much for visiting with me. I really I like you two so much, and it's so nice to have you all come in and spend this time. And I want to thank you all for listening to See the Veal and look for us every week with a new episode, and hopefully we'll have fabulous guests like this all the time. Thank you, Susan. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Bye.