Meet Samantha West, Mandy Blankenship, and Shirley Relien of Vintage Soul Barn in North Fort Worth

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha West, Mandy Blankenship, and Shirley Relien.

Samantha, Mandy, and Shirley, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Our journey began many years ago as we have always enjoyed the excitement of junking, antiquing and shopping. Now don’t get us wrong, we love “Retail Therapy” just like the rest of you, but we find our main passion is seeking out the items that are hard to find. Our Posse is composed of my Mom (Shirley Relien) and my identical twin sister (Mandy Blankenship) and myself (Samantha West).

We started as a traveling boutique with eclectic style. Our first “show” experience was with Vintage Market Days South Central TX, where we winged our first booth setup in a horse arena in Alvarado, TX (Fall of 2014). From there we were hooked. With growing families and full-time jobs my sister and I started to feel the stress of trying to juggle it all. So by the following Fall in 2015 after much trials and tribulations we all had bid farewell to our 9-5 jobs and fully embraced Life at The Barn, as we call it. We opened our storefront in June of 2017 and though we miss the show experience we are loving the one location and being fully engaged in our community.

Vintage Soul Barn came to life one day over the phone when we all knew that we wanted to use Vintage Soul, but felt like we needed to give our Vintage Souls a place to live, and we thought, “well, if we could give our Souls a home, it quite possibly would be in a barn.” Which also happens to be what my Mom lives in. She converted a horse barn into her home a couple years’ prior which all came full circle to help us name our new chapter.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We have had LOADS of FUN and LOTS of OBSTACLES…and STILL DO! Growing a business is hard and you always have things and people making you feel like you maybe aren’t good enough for what you are doing. The competition is fierce these days in time and we try to stay confident in our product delivery and we stay grateful for the One who is leading us down this road. For without our good Lord we would not be making these sacrifices. Something keeps pushing us to keep moving forward.

Vintage Soul Barn – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are collectors of all things vintage, western and boho. The 3 of us combined offer a very unique and eclectic style to our brand. Women’s Boutique that includes clothing, jewelry, tooled leather, cowboy boots, decor and more. We are the most proud of having the opportunity to be doing something as a family and being active in the community that we grew up in.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to us is honoring and growing our customer relationships and building our company around that. We are a team of Wander-luster’s and although money is great our legacy is greater and we hope to leave one behind that we and our families are proud of.

Contact Info:

• Address: 8551 Boat Club Road #121
• Website: vintagesoulbarn.net
• Phone: 682.708.5303
• Email: info@vintagesoulbarn.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vintagesoulbarn/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VintageSoulBarnTX/?ref=bookmarks

Image Credit:
Mandy Blankenship

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.