Robin Krawczyk, owner of These Storied Walls, first noticed the small street-level retail space at 17 Myrtle St., that is now home to her boutique wallpaper showroom, in the spring when she was changing residences on Beacon Hill.
Making the move from Revere Street to her new home on Hancock Street, Krawczyk made countless trips carting her belongings in a small wagon, and she kept passing the small, empty retail space.
The approximately 325 square-front shop, which opened July 14, is now cramped with books of wallpaper samples, while a selection of some of the more striking prints (such as one that memorably depicts monkeys sipping martinis and another featuring New Yorker magazine cover-illustration artwork) are prominently framed on the walls.
Wallcoverings in stock at These Storied Walls include everything from the very contemporary to the very traditional; children’s wallpaper and wallpaper for nurseries; murals; and textured and grass-cloth options, Krawczyk noted.
These Storied Walls offers a full range of price-points. In all, the shop carries around 60 different brands of wallcoverings, including Mitchell Black; Sew & Bloom (as the brand’s sole retailer); Little Green; Marimekko/Scalamandre; Mind the Gap; and Seema Krish.
Krawczyk now intends to produce and sell her own brand of Beacon Hill- and Boston-themed wallpaper in the near future as well.
A 62-year-old divorced mother of three adult children, Krawczyk readily admits, however, that the idea behind These Storied Walls started as something of a lark stemming from her own personal frustration with the lack of local options for purchasing wallpaper.
She first suggested opening a wallpaper store in jest, but when Krawczyk’s idea wasn’t met with derision from her friends, including a few designers, she decided it might be worth pursuing in earnest.
“No one said it was a stupid idea,” said Krawczyk, who admits some of her previous ideas weren’t as well received by her friends.
Krawczyk, a native of Orange, Conn., who has lived throughout the Northeast, including numerous stints around Boston, had previously worked as a social worker. When she retired from that field in the spring of 2025, she assumed she wouldn’t be working at all anymore, so she began focusing on how to spend the next decade of her life. She was soon occupying herself by volunteering and spending time with family, along with playing pickleball, but this routine quickly grew tiresome for her.
“I felt bored and felt like I needed more meaning and purpose in my life,” she said. “I needed that sense of greater community.”
In her new Hancock Street home, Krawczyk opted to decorate the powder room with a Marimekko wallpaper print of fuchsia and orange as a personal statement. (Years earlier, Krawczyk had selected a bold Marimekko geometric print wallcovering for her oldest child’s bedroom.)
“I think wallpaper gives a home personality you can’t get with paint,” said Krawczyk, who likens wallpaper to framed art adorning a wall. “What you can do with wallpaper is create an element of surprise and whimsy.”
In decorating her own homes over the year, Krawczyk found she has a keen eye for selecting the most suitable wallcovering for a particular space, and that same instinct now guides her work with clients at These Storied Walls.
“I love color and patterns,” said Krawczyk, who can intuitively find the most suitable wallpaper for a room by just seeing photos of its surroundings. “It’s so much fun to work with people who need a little guidance.”
Krawczyk added: “People think you need to be a designer to purchase wallpaper.” (She’ll still gladly work with designers, however. )
“The thing about wallpaper you need to see the colors in person, and to touch and feel it,” said Krawczyk. “If you look at a color online, you don’t get that same experience.”
Meanwhile, Krawczyk has pledged to donate 20 percent of the shop’s profits directly to Boston Healthcare for the Homeless – a nonprofit that provides healthcare services to homeless and formerly homeless individuals and families throughout Greater Boston.
“I first came to know Boston Healthcare for the Homeless as a referral resource when I was a hospital social worker,” she said. “It is a place that I hold sincere admiration for the loving and respectful way they carry out their mission.”
Also as a member of St. Cecilia’s Parish, Krawczyk has been in attendance when Dr. Jim O’Connell, president of BHCHP and a fellow parishioner, spoke eloquently as a member of panels on social justice. She was also extremely moved by reading his memoir, ‘Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor.’
Krawczyk felt further compelled to give back to BHCHP upon seeing firsthand the striking disparity between the opulence in the neighborhood “with the unhoused population like a block away from [her store].”
Inspired by Krawczyk’s largesse, one of the shop’s featured wallpaper brands, Mitchell Black, has also agreed to donate a further percentage of its sales via These Storied Walls to BHCHP.
As for becoming a first-time business owner later in life, Krawczyk said she hopes her decision will inspire others to contemplate embarking on a new chapter at any age.
“It’s never too late to try something new,” she said. “I hope this will keep me young, this sense of energy and purpose.”
These Storied Walls is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11a.m. to 4 p.m.; customers are invited to drop in during regular hours, or to make an appointment outside of these hours.
For more information, visit storiedwallsboston.com; email [email protected]; or call 617-334-5414.