University Star

Sara Strick/Star photos

Ron and Audrey Hall have eaten enough curry to last a lifetime. The couple said they travel to India twice a year to work with craftsmen designing their furniture.

Accentuate!, the Halls’ new store on The Square, is home to some of the collection. Filled with teak sideboards and rosewood armoires, Accentuate! is no Ikea.

Audrey Hall, co-owner, said she and her husband wanted to be closer to family and craved the small town charm.

“I went to high school here and graduated from Southwest Texas State,” Hall said. “We love San Marcos and are proud to be members of the community.”

The Halls brought their knowledge of the wholesale industry to San Marcos.

“We have a furniture wholesale company we started in Dallas, and we imported furniture from India,” Hall said. “As we grew, we started importing from China, Indonesia, South America, basically everywhere, but mainly the hardwood pieces are from India.”

Florence McNeal, San Marcos resident, loved the pieces, even though they would not fit in her apartment.

“I love the quality,” McNeal said. “It is not made from compressed wood — it’s real wood with intricate details.”

Ron Hall said the furniture in the store is meant to be treasured and passed down from generation to generation.

“These are heirloom pieces,” Hall said. “We want people to keep these pieces in their family.”

Hall said she designed furniture while in India.

“We design it, travel to India, put it to paper and bring it to life with the help of my friend,” Hall said. “They come to be a piece of furniture in different ways.”

Hall said some of the pieces are recycled.

“If you’ve traveled to India, you’ve seen how elaborate (doorframes are), and everything is embellished with color on it,” Hall said. “They take a doorframe and make a bookcase out of it. The bookcase could be, archeologically speaking, over 100 years old.”

All the work is done by hand.

“You’ve got craftsmen actually working on things,” Ron Hall said. “There is a guy working with a chisel and a mallet on these things, making these amazing carvings, and I think it is incredible. No two pieces are alike because everything is done by hand. We want to give an appeal with something people can’t find anywhere else.”

Accentuate! offers a 15 percent discount to students with ID, because the Halls said they want to be involved in the community.

“We want to bring in students and have them be a part of Accentuate!,” Hall said. “We want to showcase local art here and have a monthly gallery. We want to keep it local and build our community.”