Before Adair Johnson could read or write, she remembers visiting a gift shop with her mom and sisters. This shop had a little nook in the back with a colorful display of stickers. For just a quarter, she would tear off a sheet of these stickers to add to her collection. Adair has memories like this one throughout her life of how stationary has created intentional connections and how she’s been able to both find and express herself: receiving colorful, patterned origami paper from a Japanese exchange student that stayed with her neighbor; writing letters on fresh loose-leaf paper to new camp friends long after they had left each other for the summer; penning love notes in overstuffed envelopes on brand-new blue gingham stationary to her future husband.
Adair’s dream of opening a shop full of the stationery and gifts that have brought her so much joy became a reality last fall through Dear Greenville at Hampton Station—a place where she encourages people to connect with others and themselves.
Q&A with Dear Greenville’s Adair Johnson
What inspires you?
I love color! And I love retro illustrations and illustrators.
I particularly love the work of Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle.
How has stationery added to important moments of your life?
I remember going to the Hallmark store to pick out a letter writing set so that I could correspond with my boyfriend when we spent the summer apart.
It needed to be just the right thing—not too romantic, not too plain. I settled on a blue gingham pattern.
We got engaged a year later. Later on, with the help of my crafty sisters, I made my wedding invitations, stamping and embossing, cutting and gluing. Then came handmade birth announcements and birthday invitations.
When I was a stay-at-home mom of three preschoolers, it could sometimes feel like I had given all of myself to motherhood and there wasn’t anything left of me. On top of that, I didn’t feel like a particularly gifted homemaker. Creating my own invitations and decorations for parties helped me reclaim that part of me that was still there under the never-ending laundry and forever messy house.
What was your hope and inspiration for opening up Dear Greenville?
I want Dear Greenville to be an everyday stationery shop where anyone can discover something to help them connect with others and express themselves. Stationery people can be guilty of stashing away their stationery for some worthy or important occasion. Go ahead and write in that journal! Send the card! Use the stickers!
What can we find within the walls of your shop?
Blackwing pencils, Midori notebooks, Pipsticks stickers, Klizia staplers, MT washi tape, Appointed notebooks, wax seal stamps, Pigeon letter sets.
What are some of your favorite products that you currently carry?
I love Klizia staplers. They come in a rainbow of colors (the green is my favorite) and have small staples.
They’ve got a great vintage look and are made in Italy. I also love Blackwing’s two-step long point pencil sharpener. In the left hole, you sharpen just the wood.
In the right hole, you sharpen just the graphite. The result is a wickedly sharp point. I’m also a fan of Radar erasers. They look like a typical white plastic eraser, but they’re a little different. When you erase, you don’t end up with a lot of eraser dust.
Instead, you end up with one little clump that’s easy to pick up and throw away.
What is something that everyone should add to their stationery collection?
A pen that they love. Everyone has their own preferences, so I can’t prescribe a pen. My favorite part of Dear Greenville is our tester table. There is one of every pen in the shop on the tester table so you can try out everything and see what you like for yourself.
If you could write yourself a short little note of encouragement on beautiful stationery from the store what would it say?
You don’t have to do everything.
Just do the next thing.
Photography by Will Crooks
