After 17 years operating a variety of local storefronts, Ouray business owner Michelle Poirier is closing her most recent venture, home decor store Twig+Feather, a final step in bringing what was three businesses under one roof at The Blue Pear.

Poirier said she decided to close the home decor store to simplify both her work and life, and plans to bring over bestselling home goods from Twig+Feather to The Blue Pear, her original business that opened in 2007. The Blue Pear also absorbed what was once another one of Poirier’s businesses, a men’s gift shop called Bloom Modern Mercantile, in 2021. Her desire to consolidate lined up with the end of her lease at the Twig +Feather space; she’ll close at the end of January.

She said she opened all of these businesses because she loves surrounding herself with things that she loves.

Over the years she has tried to search for items shoppers can’t find everywhere. That task is getting harder, she said. But there’s not one day where she’s not excited to walk into the storefronts.

She originally opened Twig+Feather in 2018 at the former The Blue Pear space, which was located in The Wright Opera House building for more than eight years. She then planned to move the home goods store into a new space in 2020, but decided to hold off on restarting the business during the pandemic until May 2021. Then she re-opened Twig+Feather’s doors at its current location, 812 Main St. in Ouray.

Poirier also decided to keep The Blue Pear and Bloom Modern Mercantile — now just one big side-by-side storefront — open during the pandemic to ensure her employees had work. She also said the space was a nurturing place to be during such uncertain times.

Twig+Feather was successful during and after the pandemic because people were having trouble buying home goods without waiting weeks or months, she said.

“I think it had its heyday and was successful,” she said. “It filled a niche at a very important time in our history of dealing with the pandemic.”

But at this point she believes the store has served its purpose for both the community and herself.

“The space just fed me and it was important … it filled an important void of time that needed to be filled and I don’t need that anymore,” she said.

But even after 17 years, she’s still excited to run the consolidated The Blue Pear space filled with all sorts of novelty gifts and goods.

“I truly do love what I do and I love my spaces,” she said.