Skatter: Antiques Sold from the Family Heart

Walking past , you would never guess that this new store with vintage and upcycled products is rooted in family and heritage.

The mother-daughter duo, Kelly Odron and Julie Odron, 26, run the store together. They trade-off operating the store to balance taking care of Julie’s two young kids.

“Skatter means different things,” said co-owner Kelly Odron. “My grandma is Norwegian and in her Norwegian book skatter means treasure.”

Drawing inspiration from her family roots from Norway and Scandinavia, Kelly purchases many products from Europe, including jewelry from Sweden. Kelly said, “We try to keep family alive.”

All of the black-and-white photos used for the brochures and business cards are members of the Odron family. “Whenever we do something with advertising, it’s always with old family photos,” said Kelly.

Often times Julie’s kids – Cora, 3, and Spencer, 4 – come into the shop so that Kelly and Julie can have time together, instead of one of them being at the house and the other at the shop. Kelly said that Cora and Spencer love time at Skatter, which they call “their shop.”

Cora stations herself behind the cash register, declaring herself the “payer girl” while Spencer rearranges items in the store. Once everything is arranged how he likes it, Kelly said he stands back admiring his work and when satisfied says, “Perfect.”

Running Skatter is a team effort from the entire family. While Kelly and Julie run the store on a day-to-day basis, Kelly’s husband does the bookkeeping and her son Andrew, 22, hauls things around when he’s home from college in San Luis Obispo.

Ever since she was a little girl growing up in Santa Cruz, Kelly has associated flea markets and antiques with her family. “I grew up going to flea markets with my dad,” said Kelly.

Run by women of different generations, Skatter brings together urban products – representative of Julie’s style – and romantic products – representative of Kelly’s style. They both like retro, '50s and '60s-inspired décor as well, said Kelly. “I’ve got the new mixed in with the old,” said Kelly.  

It’s all about finding the hidden treasures at antique shows and old barns, said Kelly. In her oldest pair of blue jeans and her painting shoes, she rummaged through things at an old barn that was falling down to find precious pieces to sell in the store.

Trips to visit her son at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo always bring many new products to Skatter. 

“When I go down, I always have an empty car,” said Kelly. On the way back, there’s barely enough room to sit as the seats are filled with antique lamps and farmer-inspired furniture with white paint peeling from the edges.

Kelly said that they are very particular about what they sell, especially when it comes to their organic body products, none of which are animal-tested. If it’s not good, they give it away.

“We try everything out,” said Kelly.

Artists themselves, Kelly and Julie make some of the products sold in the store, including key chains and jewelry. Recently Kelly found doorknobs at an antique show and got the idea to create doorknob key chains. A necklace with a key and a light pink stone reflects the combination of the urban and romantic styles, said Kelly.

Skatter had its soft opening in April and its real opening on June 1 as part of First Friday. June 1 featured graffiti artist Taylor Reinhold with Made Fresh Collective. At July’s First Friday Dyanna Preston who specializes in driftwood products will be at Skatter.

Visit Skatter at 150 Walnut Avenue, Downtown Santa Cruz. Open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m.

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