Owner of new Springfield home goods shop is a believer in brick-and-mortar

Beyond Milepost 24 is a culmination of Kania Edelberg’s passions. 

Visitors to the new shop in downtown Springfield will find samples of the custom sofas Edelberg designs. Perched on the furniture are handmade pillowcases she discovered on a trip to Turkey. On the walls and shelves are vintage decorations she has collected from estate sales she’s scoured while traveling around the country. 

The shop at 323 Main St., across the street from The Washburne Cafe, had its grand opening Oct. 18. Where does the store’s name come from? Edelberg, 49, was born off Highway 126 at milepost 24 east of Springfield near the Leaburg Fish Hatchery.

When she was growing up, Edelberg’s family traveled back and forth from Guatemala, and her parents sold Guatemalan goods they had purchased at the Saturday Market in Eugene. She graduated from Willamette High School and studied environmental science at Lane Community College.

“Then I just started traveling,” said Edelberg, who created a travel blog and took pictures of milepost 24 markers around the country.

In 2003, she moved to Berkeley, California, where she walked into a high-end furniture store and asked for a job. She worked her way up in the company over the years and traveled to China to learn about the manufacturing process.

That experience led to owning her own furniture company in Oakland, called Funky Furniture. She also started an interior design company, called Milepost24, helping residential and commercial clients create unique spaces. While she continues to run both of those companies alongside business partners, she felt like it was time to return home.

“I needed to know what was out there to realize that Oregon is a very special place,” Edelberg said.

Her favorite unique pieces in the shop currently are an antique daybed, a handmade wood ring space divider and a wall mirror with a carved wooden frame.

Edelberg’s sofas are made to order and crafted with solid alderwood sourced from Oregon and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which ensures the wood came from responsibly managed forests. The sofas are manufactured in California.

“I try to make a very ‘green’ sofa that’s affordable,” she said. 

She keeps a deconstructed version of one of her chairs — without the upholstery — in the back of her shop for customers to see what the furniture looks like on the inside. 

“When you’re buying furniture, especially sofas, online, and you see different price points, you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Edelberg said. “You don’t know how it’s made. You don’t know what’s inside of it.”

Helping other artists

Edelberg also wants to support regional artisans. She’s selling handmade lavender candles from a farm in Whitmore, California, and ceramics from an artist who lives in Mount Shasta, California. And on Dec. 12, during the Second Friday Art Walk, she’s partnering with the owner at Earth Elements Boutique, a shop on the same block, to host a holiday market with local vendors. 

“If I’m coming home, I want to help the community that I was in,” she said. 

Edelberg said she made cookies for the grand opening inspired by her travels and invited people to come “break a cookie” with her, in the spirit of breaking bread.

“Even though we live in a world that is driven by social media and computers and technology, everything is like this online world, I still want my shop to be the experience that defies that,” she said. “Brick and mortar can still exist.”