Webster Road Is Mystic’s Modern Nautical Boutique

For lovers of the sea, is a treasure chest. Almost every glance within the store takes the eye to a nautically-inspired item. There are glasses etched with starfish, coasters with lobsters stitched onto them and items made of recycled sailcloth.

Stephanie Hunter and her husband, Rob Hunter, opened the store in February of 2011 to fill what Theberge felt was a void in downtown Mystic.

“I would be traveling around New England buying up items and thinking, 'Why isn’t there a place I can by this in Mystic',” Hunter said.

She describes the home goods store as nautical preppy with a hip twist. Every item in the store is something she picked out and loved.

“It’s my cup of tea,” Hunter said, looking around the place.

And it seems like the items she fills the store with are a lot of other people’s cup of tea as well. Theberge can barely keep the Sea Bag items Webster Road sells in stock. They have coasters, placemats and bags all made from recycled, used sails. When she recently got in a stock of the wine bags, 80 percent of them sold within the first weekend.

“They’re awesome, they’re so much fun,” Hunter said.

Customers, especially locals, also come to the store for their wide selection of cards. Shelves of cards the fill the store and Hunter said that some days, she wonders if they should just have a paper store.

“Everyone says we have the best cards,” Hunter said.

But if they just sold cards, Hunterwould have to shop for herself and not the store. She had little retail experience before her and her husband opened the now closed Dockside Dogs in Stonington Borough. For the self-described shopalcoholic though, finding items to sell was easy.

“If you’re good at shopping and picking things out, you’re qualified,” Hunter said.

Looking around the store, it's easy to see Hunter is qualified. The items in the store flow together and it’s easy to picture almost any of them in a beach house, especially one of the store's newest items.

Incredibly soft blankets that you would never guess were made from recycled t-shirts that were turned into yarn hang on a wooden ladder in the store. The eco-friendly blankets are one of a number of green items in the store such as Sea Bags and reclaimed wood furniture.

“That just happened,” Hunter of the items.

Or maybe it was the shopalcoholic in Hunter pairing the items subconsciously.