This Vintage Nail Salon Sign Reminds Beditorial Founder Holly Falcone of Her First Career

What makes a purchase “worth it”? The answer is different for everybody, so we’re asking some of the coolest, most shopping-savvy people we know—from small-business owners to designers, artists, and actors—to tell us the story behind one of their most prized possessions.

Who?

For the past decade, Holly Falcone has worked as an editorial nail artist for fashion shows, advertisements, magazine spreads, and films. She’s collaborated with designers like Maryam Nassir Zadeh and Sandy Liang on bold nails that complement runway looks, and has been featured in publications like Vogue and The New York Times.

Now, Holly’s bringing her funky-yet-classic style to the home goods world with a brand called Beditorial. She launched the business with a playful line of cotton bed sheets and linens that showcase her own hand-drawn prints, and plans to expand in the near future. Her sights are set on producing furniture and decor that honor dressing up and personalizing spaces.

Holly certainly practices what she preaches, filling her historic Los Angeles rental with nostalgic pieces and midcentury-modern treasures. The apartment itself, a 1935 modernist guesthouse built by architect Rudolph Schindler, is also a gem. Though it’s only 700 square feet, it includes a sunken living room with an original brick fireplace and treetop views.

“I moved here to make it my heartbreak hotel when I got divorced,” Holly says. “It really did the trick. A ton of creatives have lived here, so I feel like there’s some really good juju from all of the past tenants. It inspired me to start a home line. I fell in love with my home, for once, and wanted to celebrate it.”

What?

Holly’s most cherished belonging is a hand-painted glass, light-up nail salon sign from the early 1980s. It reads “Nails” in a thick yellow cursive and a star dots the letter i. With four green stripes at the top and a well-manicured hand holding a red flower, it’s a retro masterpiece.

When and where?

When Holly began her nail journey about 10 years ago, she was looking to buy a salon desk on Craigslist. She spotted her now-beloved sign in the background of a photo posted by the owners of a recently-shuttered New Jersey nail salon, who were selling the remaining items of their company.

Holly drove from New York City to a storage unit in Avon-by-the-Sea, New Jersey, to get the sign, which cost about $20. “I think I paid more in gas to pick it up,” she remembers. “It’s been everywhere with me. It’s been the one thing that I’ve bubble-wrapped any time I’ve moved. It’s always going to be on display, no matter where I am.”

Why?

As Holly embarks on her new bedding venture, her nails sign is more important to her than ever. “I was starting a business from the ground up, and now I’m starting one again, so it’s a cool way to remind myself to do it all scrappy style from the get-go,” she says. “Nails was the first thing I did on my own. It was a career based on a passion and my own talent, and that’s a mile marker for me.”