Stuart Hough had already spent more than four decades moving through the global antiques trade, working out of Colorado and Paris, before he settled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with his children Charlotte and Will and conceived Sunnyside Trading Co. there. That origin story matters because it explains why the Asheville-area business reads less like a typical furniture showroom and more like a working import operation: a collection built through direct relationships with antique dealers, artisans, workshops, historic markets, and souks scattered across the old trade routes, described by the company itself as carried out in the spirit of the old Silk Road.
The inventory reflects that global sourcing directly. Furniture ranges across colonial-era styles, including Anglo-Indian, European colonial, and Moroccan-influenced pieces, alongside Chinese antique and lacquer furniture, farmhouse-style rustic pieces built from reclaimed wood, and hand-painted antique cabinets and chests. Architectural elements make up a significant part of the stock as well: carved doors, gates, screens, archways, columns, and window frames salvaged from older buildings and repurposed as statement pieces for a home or garden. Textiles round out the collection with hand-loomed rugs from Turkey and Morocco, Suzani embroidery, Kantha cloth, and pillows and poufs made from vintage fabric, while smaller decorative categories cover ceramics, tribal masks, woven baskets, chandeliers, table lamps, and mirrors sourced from the same network of makers and markets.
Sourcing goods from India, China, Morocco, Turkey, and points along the old Silk Road means very little of what sits on the sales floor is mass-produced or easily duplicated, which is the core appeal for anyone furnishing a home with an eye toward pieces that carry actual age, wear, and craftsmanship rather than a factory finish. Sustainability runs through the business model too, since sourcing pieces that already exist, rather than commissioning new production, keeps materials and objects in circulation instead of adding to it.
The company has grown enough in recent years to expand beyond its North Carolina roots, opening a second location in Santa Fe’s Railyard Arts District in the fall of 2025, a sign that the Asheville-born business found an audience willing to follow its sourcing model into a new regional market. For customers closer to western North Carolina, the original location remains reachable at 828-412-3365 for questions about current stock, appointment availability, or shipping on larger furniture pieces, since large or fragile architectural items often require special handling to ship safely.
Anyone drawn to global, one-of-a-kind furnishings over anything that could be ordered new from a catalog will find Sunnyside Trading Co.’s approach distinct from a typical antique shop: fewer categories chosen at random and more of a deliberate, well-traveled collection assembled piece by piece from working artisans and markets abroad. Sunnyside Trading Co., born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, sources antique furniture, architectural salvage, and handmade textiles directly from artisans and markets across India, China, Morocco, and Turkey in the spirit of the old Silk Road.
