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Retail and experience-based businesses added to downtown Bluffton 

By Marlena Ballinger 

Becky Avila is the owner of a newly renovated building located at 105 E. Elm Street which houses three new businesses: Aliva’s boutique Fusion Designs on Elm and Rage in the Alley and tenant Bluffton Art Company.

Avila, along with her partner Lee Bowman, has fulfilled her lifelong dream of opening and operating a boutique. What started as playing “store” as a kid and led to pop-up shops held in the club house of Bluffton Golf Club, has now turned into a thriving downtown business.

Avila’s business has more ties to local entrepreneurs than one may imagine. When you meet her, you’ll recognize her as the receptionist at Spectrum Salon, owned by Mandy Kinn of Bluffton. 

“Mandy is my best friend,” said Avila. “She named my business for me.” Avila said that when she asked Mandy how she came up with the name Spectrum Salon, Kinn suggested she name her building Fusion Designs on Elm.

Avila purchased her building from Luke Young, owner of the Bluffton Golf Course and along with Bowman has given the building a much needed makeover. 

“I knew from the beginning that I wanted the building to be black and white and I wanted wings on the side of my building,” she commented. The building that once housed a chiropractor’s office and a hair salon is now transformed into an art studio, a boutique, a consignment shop and a rage room.

Avila’s boutique is way more than the average clothing store. She has created a custom hat bar that allows customers to choose a hat and several designer patches that can be ironed onto each hat. Her boutique consists of men’s, women’s, tweens, children and infant clothes of all sizes, including women’s clothes ranging from small to 4XL. Avila also restores furniture to sell in her shop and she has 12 local consignment vendors that bring her antiques and knickknacks. 

One evening Avila was on an outing with her colleagues from Spectrum Salon. Kinn took her staff on a day trip that included a visit to a rage room.

“While I was there, all I could think of was how I could integrate this into my new building,” Avila said. “I have the perfect spot for it.”

Walking through Rage in the Alley, you’ll find three rooms. One named the “Zen Den,” another deemed the “Meditation Room” and the “Rage Room”. One of the rooms has a divider wall for people to watch and it allows for special events. To begin smashing, guests grab a milk crate of items and smash them into pieces. The “safety wall” allows guests to don an apron and a protective face mask while the “weapon wall” allows them to grab a baseball bat or other items to smash things with. 

Avila even integrates a local flare to her rage room. 

“At the end of every week I’ll go to the Etcetera Shop and pick up items that do not sell. I’ll stop at 1861 Wine Lounge and grab all the empty bottles,” she commented. Her dad also gets bottles from an American Legion and he will grab old TVs laying along the road. Both Avila and Bowman shop thrift shops for ceramic and glass knickknacks. All of these collected things allow her to provide smashable items. “It’s amazing how smashing items can be therapeutic,” she notes.

Prior to cleaning any of the rooms, Avila likes to gather the smashed glass pieces with the hopes of creating mosaic pieces for walls and windows. 

Being artistic is one of Avila’s several talents. This artistic nature led her to the famous angel wings hanging on the side of her building. The wings, created by Salty Dog Designs, are hand made of metal. According to Bowman, each wing weighs 300 pounds and was crafted one feather at a time. The bracket to hang the wings was also customized and it took them two days to complete the installation.

Salty Dog Designs is owned by Micah Minning of Bluffton. He spent a year creating the masterpiece with a month of that used to create a custom press for each wing. Avila also has for sale several artistic pieces created by Minning, including two tables. He welds together tools, bolts and nuts to design the tables and if you look closely at one, you’ll see a pirate head in the middle.

Avila and Bowman are proud of the fact that they utilized local vendors for the building renovations. The couple each know the importance of supporting local and created the businesses on the premise to not only support Bluffton but to bring more people into the community.

Fusion Designs on Elm is located at on Elm Street just east of Main and has hours on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Rage in the Alley is in the rear of the building and is open by appointment only through its website at www.rageinthealley.com.