If you run your finger along the organic curve of the live edge walnut table or across the pale grain of the sycamore desk at Paul Michael Company’s showroom in Round Top, Texas, you might feel something more than great craftsmanship and solid wood. If you regard the crystal-clear points of quartz beneath the glass top of a coffee table or look through your reflection in the perfectly smooth finish of a solid aluminum bench, you may see something deeper than beauty. When Paul Michael designs something at his Dermott, Ark., workshop, or when he finds an extraordinary piece to bring to his Round Top showroom, he is inspired by over a century of family history and Mississippi Delta heritage. He is driven by an innate need to innovate and create, and it shows in every detail of his work.
At the turn of the 20th century, Paul’s grandfather was one of the first to find success as a merchant in southeast Arkansas, traveling by mule to the levee camps along the Mississippi River with essential goods for the workers there. He eventually settled in Lake Village, Ark., opening the town’s first department store, Mansour’s on Main Street. Paul grew up working at his grandfather’s store, where the seed for trading, buying and selling was planted early in him and grew into an unstoppable entrepreneurial spirit. In the 1970s, he started his own venture buying and selling antiques. His first “aha moment” was landing TGI Fridays, in search of decor for their restaurant. After that, it was full steam ahead for Paul.
When he stepped into a vintage clothing store in Nashville, Tenn., while on a wild goose chase for a stuffed peacock, he found something even more rare. After a courtship filled with antiquing dates and sharing creative ideas, he knew he’d met his creative, ambitious and supportive match in that shop’s owner, Debbie. After the two married, they traveled around together on the hunt for antiques, leading Paul to a cache of antique brooch molds from a factory in Rhode Island. Using the molds to create vintage-inspired designs, they launched lines called Opinions and Paul Michael Jewelry. The jewelry took off, getting picked up by major department stores across the country and leading them to branch out into Christmas ornaments and other home decor. It was the beginning of the modern-day Paul Michael Company.
The Paul Michael Company grew, opening huge retail locations in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, plus an online store. Paul and Debbie expanded their business beyond retail into manufacturing their own line of home decor and furniture, still incorporating unique antique pieces. The first manufactured item was a cutting board inspired by a vintage Gerber design that Paul found while antiquing.
Today, Paul Michael Company operates a busy workshop in Dermott, where skilled artisans bring Paul’s designs to life, often layering in antique motifs and using extraordinary objects from the natural world, like Arkansas quartz, cypress knees, horns from the Texas longhorn steers common to Round Top, excavated fossils from ancient seabeds, refined aluminum common in Arkansas mines, boulders from the Ozark Mountains, petrified wood and more. “I’ve always believed in the power of honesty and authenticity, and that is really what leads my designs,” he explained. “I get inspired by nature, by other artists ... and the things I see. When it comes to bringing an idea to life, it has to be in an authentic way.”
In 2009, while in Round Top making his first big buy for his retail stores, Paul fell in love with the little town and its big heart for antiques and design. He knew he wanted to be part of the growing energy of the community, and in 2016 he got the perfect opportunity. He designed and built Market Hill on 22 acres. In reality, he never stopped building Market Hill. What started as one building became two massive buildings with ample room for dozens of vendors and the stunning Paul Michael showroom, plus a gourmet restaurant, a couple of bars, an event venue, a spacious parking lot, and the Paul Michael Company Holiday House, a beloved nod to the way the company famously decked out its stores at Christmastime for decades.
“To say my career trajectory is unusual is an understatement,” Paul said. “I didn’t go to a fancy business school or get a degree in retail. I learned at flea markets, and Round Top was one of the first places I came to pick. To see what it was back then and what it has grown into today is nothing short of miraculous and a testament to the creative energy innate in the town. There is an energy flowing through Round Top, and if you have just one creative bone in your body, you will feel it. Just as I was drawn to it at the beginning of my career, I am drawn to it now. It is where my creativity and passion thrive.”
Despite all of the changes and the ever-expanding Market Hill, Paul Michael sticks to his roots when it comes to his designs and the company as a whole. From the references to his home state in the Arkansas quartz, solid wood and other natural details in his creations to the workshop in Dermott where pieces are crafted locally, his love of the region shines through. The influence of antiques is still obvious in much of his work and in his love for Round Top, and he reconnects to past iterations of Paul Michael Company all of the time, like with his Holiday House and his recent launch of a new jewelry line at the showroom.
Most importantly, Paul Michael Company is still a family business. Paul is as hands-on now at Market Hill as he was in the first years of his career, and by his side is Debbie. Their daughter, Elizabeth, is part of the team, and their son, Jake, is a familiar face at Market Hill, as is daughter-in-law, Leigh.
This year, Paul and Debbie celebrate 42 years of a business built on innovation, creativity, craftsmanship and pushing the boundaries of design, and they are looking backward as much as they are looking forward, because a tree doesn’t grow tall without deep roots.