Bella Mia showcases woman's flair for home decor

When Mia Robin was a little girl, she remembers driving with her parents looking at the big homes along the North Shore's Sheridan Road. She'd beg her parents to let her look inside.

While she wasn't able to, she held onto this fascination. She recently opened a shop in Naperville designed to look like a home. She sells home décor, specialty gifts and her silk floral arrangements.

Robin launched Bella Mia at 120 S. Webster St. about four months ago.

Robin explains that guests in her home were constantly telling her how much they enjoyed the design and even asked if they could buy particular pieces. She now attempts to carry the more unusual merchandise in her store.

"I try to carry lines that no one else has," she said.

Votivo candles and Lampe Burger lamps are highlights. The lamps, made in Paris, are filled with scented oil and designed to clean the air. They range in price from $49 to $5,000.

She also carries an array of her own silk flowers.

"Our florals are very different and exquisitely designed," she said. They start at $40 and go up to about $1,000.

Robin does a great deal of custom work and offers free in-home consultations. She also does consulting work and interior design.

"I love what I do," Robin said. Her son, a carpenter, built the shop. "It's just perfect. People come into my store and tell me they could live here."

Robin's husband, Barry, owns a law firm in Chicago. The couple has three children. Their youngest daughter, Alyssa, 19, works at the store four days a week.

This is not Robin's first business venture.

She opened a similar shop, Floral Bliss, in Naperville during the summer of 2004.

On the day she opened that store, she found out her mother was dying. The timing wasn't right and she eventually sold the business, offering to do design work at the store a few days a week.

Robin, 56, worked at the shop until the end of April when she decided it was time to try her own business again.

In launching Bella Mia, she wants people to know that just because you try something and it doesn't work out, that it's fine to try again.

"Don't be afraid. Especially if what you're doing is a passion," Robin said.

Next year at this time, Robin said she plans to decorate homes for the holidays.

The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, call (630) 848-1113.

Top honors: Stevens & Tate Marketing, an advertising company in Lombard, has received one gold and five silver Davey Awards in recognition of its work for Kirk Homes, Town & Country Homes, Centex Destinations Properties and The Abbey Resort.

The Davey Awards are exclusively for agencies, companies or organizations with annual billings or revenues between $5 and 25 million.