Treasure hunter parlays passion into career

Few people are lucky enough to turn their passions into professions. Stasea Dohoney is one of them. The 31-year-old South Carolina native is a treasure hunter. Not the kind that scuba dives in search of Spanish gold. But the kind that frequents estate and yard sales and Lytton Springs in search of, well, she knows it when she sees it.

She sells some of her finds at her booth at Mill Street Antiques, including a set of old porcelain PG&E signs that ended up on the April 2011 cover of the Pottery Barn catalog. She uses some for interior design projects, like a kitchen she renovated in Napa to make it look like it’s from the 1950s, complete with lots of Pyrex and a Formica table. But the bigger play is in her retail window displays. Stasea has parlayed her passion for treasure hunting into a budding career as a visual merchandiser.

For one client, Arboretum Apparel, Stasea had the bright idea to drive her fully restored 1956 BMW Isetta into the store and park it in the window.

“It was crazy,” she says. “I had maybe an inch of breathing room on either side. I was literally sweating bullets!”

To round out the scene, she added a slew of vintage suitcases. It was a striking display that was described by one fashion industry blogger as “The Best Window Display of All Time.” But more importantly, it caught the eye of Karen Smith, the Director of Business Development at Marmot who, in March, hired her to design the storefront display for the opening of the brand’s flagship store in Union Square.

 

Stasea wanted to create dewy, mossy forest to showcase Marmot’s rainwear. She found felled madrone trees that were slated for firewood and sanded, shellacked and stood them up on custom steel bases fabricated by local metalworker, Iain Rizzo. And for the rolling forest floor, she covered chicken wire with moss. Rain jackets were hung from the trees. It’s a design that so impressed the powers that be, that it was replicated in Marmot stores in Park City and Aspen.

While she boasts international clients like Marmot, she really enjoys working within the community. Her latest client, Roadhouse Winery, is transforming their Healdsburg Square tasting room into a rustic, roadside spot. A perfect opportunity for Stasea to go scavenging for old highway signs, license plates and such.

“I like giving new life to things that might otherwise end up in a dump or landfill.”

That she would become a treasure hunter is not shocking considering her upbringing. She was raised on a private island near Charleston that was owned by the extremely wealthy Countess Alicia Paolozzi, for whom her father was a caretaker. Stasea spent her days rummaging through the Countess’s storage barn.

“She had the most amazing costume jewelry, furs, taxidermy and steamer trunks full of vintage clothing. It was a treasure hunter’s dream. In fact, when she died, that’s what the newspaper headline read, ‘A Treasure Hunter’s Dream.’”

She also scoured the tidal creeks for cannonballs, bullets and bottles from the Civil War. One afternoon, while clamming with her father, she found an old boot she was sure was from the war. She dragged it around all day until finally, her dad – not thinking much of it – made her toss into the dunes.

“Someone else found it and two days later it was on the front page of the Post & Courier. Now it’s in a museum in Charleston. I was right, and I’ve never let him forget it,” she jokes.

If you want to learn more about Stasea, or have her work her magic in your store or home, check her out on her website, seahoney.com.