Tom and Cindy Hollander in their Kerrytown store's new upstairs home and kitchen department.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

Tom and Cindy Hollander have found that fine decorative paper and housewares have more in common than rice paper and rice cookers. 

“There’s a lot of crossover,” said Cindy Hollander. “There are bookends and desk items, calendars and photo albums.”

Hollander’s, a stalwart presence at Kerrytown Market & Shops, offers book-binding supplies and decorative paper, including so-called rice paper that isn’t actually made of rice. Last spring, they expanded into 5,000 square feet of space above their original store.

They opened Hollander’s Kitchen and Home, and are looking at their first holiday season with two stores. The new store sells cookware and gadgets along with occasional furniture, pillows, lamps and clocks.

“It’s a fun, eclectic mix,” Hollander said. “It’s transitional (style) more than traditional.”

While there are no baseline sales data for the new kitchen store, holiday sales at both shops have been pleasingly strong, said Tom Hollander.“Things have been really good, we’re very happy with the way things are.”

Sales at the paper store for the post-Thanksgiving weekend were 20 percent over last year, he said, and sales at the kitchen and home store have been strong.

“There’s nothing to compare it to, but I have the sense that sales at the (new) store are going really well, but we won’t really be able to judge until next year.”

Still, they’ve had to reorder things from vendors, and merchandise is selling well across the board, he said. While lower price point gadgets have sold strong, so has the pricier, high-end Le Cruset cookware.

And it’s not only Hollander’s that’s seeing solid holiday traffic, Tom Hollander said. “Kerrytown has been busy. It’s been good for all retail.”

The Hollanders have a number of holiday strategies to boost sales: They participated in a Kerrytown open house in November and will offer a 10 percent store-wide discount for Midnight Madness Fri., Dec. 4.

They’ve offered a number of cooking classes, including one scheduled for this weekend. Already filled, the class is offered by Eve Aronoff from her namesake Kerrytown restaurant on creating a holiday menu. The classes have drawn customers into the new store, who turnaround and buy something after the class, Tom Hollander said. 

They are also in the process of releasing their January schedule of cooking and decorative paper arts classes, which can be purchased as gifts for the holidays. 

The Hollanders have cleared away their Thanksgiving décor at the kitchen and home store to make way for holiday decorating. At the paper store downstairs, they have broken out boxed cards, giftwrap and ribbon and advent calendars in addition to their nationally recognized collection of decorative papers and bookbinding supplies.