Community Highlights: Meet Amanda Burgess-Proctor of Dee Dee’s Fine Vintage

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Burgess-Proctor.

Hi Amanda, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Until about a year and a half ago, Dee Dee’s was nothing more than a seed of an idea I carried in my heart. I am a criminologist and former university professor. I spent two decades working in, researching, and teaching about the criminal justice system, and never imagined I would do anything other than spend the next two decades doing the same thing until I retired. But then a series of life-altering personal and professional circumstances – including COVID, of course, as well as having a child survive cancer – prompted me to take leave from the university for the 2021-2022 academic year. I needed time to heal and regroup. What started out as a therapeutic hobby – fixing up and painting old furniture – rapidly evolved into something more substantive. After a sale held in my garage was surprisingly successful, I began to believe that Dee Dee’s could become an actual business. I spent the next few months searching for a location to establish a brick-and-mortar retail store, and the moment I set foot in the 1923 bungalow in Clawson I knew I’d found it. Dee Dee’s opened for business on November 5, 2021, and I formally resigned my faculty position in February 2022. On November 5, 2022 Dee Dee’s celebrated our one-year anniversary.  

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The honest answer is that it has been smooth – or, at least, smoother than I’d expected it to be. Let me be upfront and acknowledge that I have zero background in running a business. What I did have, though, was a very clear vision of how I wanted Dee Dee’s to look and feel and operate. It was an exciting and invigorating challenge for me to learn to do things that were totally outside my expertise (like writing a business plan) or that dusted off skills I hadn’t used in a long time (like developing the website).

The single biggest challenge I faced was the mental anguish of deciding to leave the successful career that I’d worked so hard to achieve. It took me months to work through the sheer terror and debilitating self-doubt of taking a step that I knew would permanently and irrevocably alter my professional identity.

Still, I was at a point in my life where I was uncharacteristically open to new experiences. The events of the preceding few years had forged in me a desire to nurture other passions in my life – especially things that create joy for me and for others. After a series of chance encounters, unlikely coincidences, and simply being in the right place at the right time, I felt like this strange and exciting new path was being laid out for me, and it felt wrong not to follow it.

Most important to the success of this experience is the team of people who have helped make Dee Dee’s a reality. My husband Bryan and our three daughters – Anna, Maya, and Leah – have been enormously supportive in every way possible. My mother-in-law Marilynn, our fabric artisan, has been my right-hand woman from day one. Liz and Debi are friends and talented furniture artisans who encouraged and assisted me early on, and who were joined later by the equally talented Kelly and Angela. My dad is the shop’s handyman and unsung hero, and my sister is my biggest supporter from afar. My friends who are my unofficial R&D team and marketing strategists and furniture haulers; fellow small business owners who graciously shared their wisdom with me; people who have purchased items from the shop and supported us on social media – I could not have done this without each of them.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Dee Dee’s is named after my late mom, who loved antiquing. We fix up, refurbish, refresh, and reimagine vintage and antique furniture pieces and help them find their new forever homes. Many of the furniture items in the shop were family heirlooms handed down through generations. I believe there is good energy in these much-loved pieces, and we work hard to honor their original beauty while updating and refreshing them for the modern home. The charming century-old bungalow that houses our shop is the perfect showcase for these lovely pieces of furniture. We carry two lines of furniture paint and supplies – Fusion Mineral Paint and Wise Owl Paint – that we use in refurbishing our pieces. We also sell handcrafted pillows and textiles (made by my mother-in-law), as well as candles, teas, gifts, and antique and vintage décor items.

There are a few things that set Dee Dee’s apart.

First, we are committed to responsible consumerism. The candles, teas, wreaths, framed prints, greeting cards, and skincare items we sell are all made locally by women-owned small businesses. Our décor pillows are filled with 100% organic cotton inserts we get from a woman-owned farm in upstate New York. Our signature t-shirts are made by a family-owned company in Michigan. Even the two paint lines we carry – Fusion and Wise Owl – are women-owned companies whose products are certified non-toxic. We work hard to source everything in our shop, including our shopping bags and labels, from U.S.-based companies. I want to ensure that people can feel good about spending their money on the items available at Dee Dee’s.

Second, our furniture pieces are reimagined with an eye toward a traditional, classic aesthetic. Furniture painting has become very popular, and, in my opinion, often needlessly fussy. Finishes and embellishments that are trendy today will, I believe, eventually appear dated. We aim to refresh our pieces with an understated elegance that will look as tasteful decades from now as they did decades ago.

Third, we research the origin and history of each of our pieces. (I am a professional researcher, after all!) For each item, we track down information about the manufacturer (if known), the family from which it originated, and anything else that makes it special. When you buy a furniture piece from Dee Dee’s, you know something about who owned it and where it came from. I think that connection to our past is really important.

Finally, we always have a pot of tea brewing for our guests. Everyone is welcome to stop in and enjoy a cup of tea and some pleasant conversation.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Post-COVID, I think we are still working to fully reestablish the human connections and interactions that were lost. During the pandemic lockdowns, entire categories of relationships disappeared: the local shop owners who knew our first names and our favorite orders; the barbers and hair stylists and nail techs with whom we regularly shared life updates; the colleagues we chatted with on the way into or out of work each day. These losses, coupled with the uniquely difficult personal, professional, and political environment of the last few years, took a toll on many of us. My hope is that Dee Dee’s will serve as a temporary reprieve from all of that. When guests step into the shop, they can leave behind the heavy things that occupy their minds and hearts and just spend a few minutes looking at beautiful things and enjoying some friendly conversation. Dee Dee’s is a peaceful, healing space for me, and I hope our guests will feel the same way.

Thank you to VoyageMichigan for this opportunity. My most heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped make Dee Dee’s a dream come true. I am grateful to you all.

Contact Info:

• Website: deedeesfinevintage.com
• Instagram: @deedeesfinevintage
• Facebook: @deedeesfinevintage
• Twitter: @deedeesfinevintage
• Youtube: @deedeesfinevintage