HG Lifestyle Brings Style To Outdoor Entertaining

By Nancy K. Crevier

It is hard to miss the glistening copper rooftops of the cupolas topped with novelty weathervanes that line Route 25 in front of HG Lifestyle at 105 South Main Street, and hard to ignore their siren call to pull in and browse the retail home and garden store.

“What we are bringing to Newtown,” said HG Lifestyle CEO Michael Lodato, “are the works of regional artisans who create one-of-a kind pieces of art for the home and garden.” The functional, architectural accents are then mass-produced by the company to make affordable pieces that homeowners can use to personalize their outdoor and patio spaces. HG Lifestyle works with the artisans throughout the entire process of mass production, said Mr Lodato, ensuring that the end result is a quality product designed to last for years.

The Newtown HG Lifestyle store is the flagship retail store for his nationally distributed wholesale online business, said Mr Lodato, and the first in what Mr Lodato hopes will be a series of retail stores in New Hampshire, Florida, Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Cape Cod.

 Catering to the need for great outdoor accoutrements is not new to Mr Lodato. HG Lifestyle is an expansion of his father’s well-known relics source in Stamford, United Housewrecking. Utilizing the skills of fine craftspeople from the region, the father-son business soon developed a reputation for high quality and was the first in their industry to implement wide-scale production and design of cupolas and weathervanes.

“Newtown is a great community of really nice homes that people care about. The location just felt right to me,” said Mr Lodato of his decision to open the store in Newtown in April. “We are all about an entertaining lifestyle. With the economy, people are staying at home and beautifying their homes and gardens so that they can ‘staycation’ at home,” he said.

 The 1,200-square-foot space is filled with items to improve a home’s patio and garden space, including the Fire Dome, a decorative hand-cut steel dome encasing a wood- or charcoal-fired flame in a raised copper pit.

“It’s a place for people to gather around on the patio,” said Mr Lodato, and the Newtown HG Lifestyle is the only retail store nationwide carrying the item, created by Danbury artist Jason Long.

HG Lifestyle is also the only Smithsonian-licensed manufacturer of a collection of cupolas inspired by those in the Smithsonian Museum archives.

“Our parent company, Good Directions, was invited to look through the archives of the Smithsonian cupolas and weathervanes,” said Mr Lodato. The special collection was designed by artists and features architectural elements of the Smithsonian Castle. “It’s a nice testament to the quality our company produces that the Smithsonian chose us,” he said.

Beneath the shiny copper tops, the cupolas are composed of either maintenance free PVC vinyl, or a weather-resistant cypress wood using modern construction techniques. The company is producing three weathervanes in the Smithsonian line as well. A rooster, horse, or eagle, each composed of copper and brass with either a brilliant copper finish or a subtle blue verde patina, is available.

The Smithsonian weathervanes are only three of the 120-plus styles of weathervanes carried by HG Lifestyle. From floor to ceiling, weathervanes — and garden vanes, for placement on poles in gardens — cover the walls inside the store. Pigs, ducks, geese, biplanes, elk, deer, motorcycles, stars, and moons are just a few of the designs by regional artists from which customers can select, and if need be, HG Lifestyle is willing to work with a client to customize a weathervane.

The line of copper and brass items for the outdoors extends to leader heads for gutters, attractive hose pots for garden hose storage, and pagoda-look oil lamps that can be perched on tall poles or placed on tabletops to cast a striking light.

Decorative finials for cupola tops are also cast from copper and brass, as are the distinctive mailboxes, wall art, birdbaths, and birdfeeders. Rain chains, designed by various artists, are a practical and pretty method of capturing water from the gutter, and have been a popular item, Mr Lodato said. As the water comes off of the roof gutter, it trickles down the links and ornamental shapes, most often ending up in a rain barrel, he said, which customers then use to water gardens.

While products can be ordered online at hglifestyle.com, the retail store offers customers the opportunity to appreciate the items firsthand, said Mr Lodato.

“It’s not just a showroom for the online store,” he emphasized. “It is a retail space for some really unique pieces.”

Customers can be assured, as well, he said, that service does not end at the point of sale. HG Lifestyle provides specialized support for any installation, technical specifications, assembly, or troubleshooting questions that may arise.

Business has been steady, Mr Lodato said, and he looks forward to increased trade as the weather puts more people into an outdoor frame of mind.

“We’re getting good traffic here. People come in and can see our products. They do think about spending the money a little more than they used to, but I am finding that they do come back.”

The grand opening for HG Lifestyle is set for Saturday, June 13, from 9 am to 4 pm, with giveaways, drawings for prizes, and grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for all visitors to the store that day.

“I think people will come away with a better feel for what we are,” Mr Lodato said. “We want to be a part of that ‘home town’ feel.”

HG Lifestyle is at 105 South Main Street. The store is open Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 4 pm, and on Sunday from 10 am to 3 pm; or visit hglifestyle.com.