The couple was looking for a specific design for their home with a vintage flare. The quest for finding the right pieces for their house got them thinking about bringing that style to Fort Dodge. And the thrill they got from finding unique pieces of furniture or housewares, just kept pushing them toward the idea of opening a store, which debuted this past Mother’s Day at 1109 Central Ave.

“We started by redecorating our house,” Andrea Emerson said.”We started to tear up the carpet and we were trying to decide on some design ideas that we wanted. We settled on mid-century modern.

“We both really liked it and Lisa takes an idea and runs with it,” she added. “She was looking for furniture and I showed her Facebook Marketplace and it was over from there. She was finding things all over the place and pretty soon we had some nice stuff at the house.

“And pretty soon we had too much stuff. She decided she was going to start selling furniture online and we started going all over the place.”

-Messenger photo by John McBride
A wall-sized painting of Atomic Cats is one of the first things customers see at The Atomic Cat, located at 1109 Central Ave. in Fort Dodge. The Atomic Cat design was the inspiration behind the store’s name and the painting gives off “Brady Bunch” vibes and includes their dog Bailey for good measure.

Lisa Emerson said the next thing to fill up was their garage and then they filled a storage unit with things they had found. All the while, they were selling things almost as quickly as they found them, she said.

Finally, one day, Andrea Emerson was at KD’s Over the Moon, which occupied the space that now houses their store. She discovered that KD’s Over the Moon was closing and she asked about the open space. A few months later, they were opening the doors.

But that didn’t come without some worrisome days, though. Right after they signed the lease to take over the shop, the city of Fort Dodge began road construction at the intersection of Central Avenue and 12th Street. That made it difficult to get to their store.

“Our stomachs just kind of dropped,” said Andrea Emerson. “At first we were like, oh no. But we realized that gave us time to get redecorated and do some painting and to make it just how we want it. We opened on weekends and didn’t have a lot of foot traffic. But Lisa is so good about posting things on our Facebook page and that’s where we would get a lot of business.”

Now that the street is done, business has picked up quite a bit.

-Messenger photo by John McBride
The Atomic Cat features several vintage pieces that come in entire sets, like this dining set that is on display. The store is full of similar mid-century modern pieces.

“We’ve gotten quite a bit of traffic now,” said Lisa Emerson. “We did continue to sell things from our home, but we only have a few things left. Most of it is here now.”

Andrea said because of Lisa’s diligence posting to their store’s Facebook Page, they’ve kept busy selling online as well.

“She no sooner gets a piece on there and nine times out of 10, it’s gone pretty quickly,” Andrea Emerson said. “We have people from all over buying stuff.”

They’ve had customers from Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis and a couple came up from Arkansas as well. They also have plans to deliver some items to customers in Chicago and St. Louis.

They said they get a lot of their items from estate sales, yard sales and on Facebook. They said they felt Fort Dodge didn’t have a lot of places to find vintage items, so that was their goal.

-Messenger photo by John McBride
Besides furniture, The Atomic Cat features countless other home decor pieces, including many vintage glassware sets.

They also both admitted that they truly enjoy going on adventures to find new items for the store.

“We just love talking to people when we are out collecting things,” said Andrea Emerson. “We are just having an absolute blast.”

“We just both love road trips,” added Lisa Emerson. “We are going to St. Louis, and then Chicago and then down to Atlanta. It’s just a blast.”

Andrea Emerson said a lot of people have come into the store and mentioned that this was just what Fort Dodge needed, which makes them happy to hear.

“You know the idea really took off when a friend of ours was over at our house and she said it looked like her grandma’s house. That was the vibe we were looking for. Our work was done,” said Lisa Emerson.

Right now the store is regularly open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays. During the week, they will post on Facebook if the store is open, but they hope to add regular hours on Thursday and Friday.

“And we tell everybody, just send us a message if we aren’t there. We’re just right down the street at home,” said Lisa Emerson.

Even the name of their store has an interesting backstory. The atomic era was during the ’50s and ’60s and some of the cats with their hour-glass design were called the Atomic Cats. They both liked the name and despite no one else in their family agreeing with them, they went with it.

“The atomic era is where all our cool furniture came from,” said Lisa Emerson.

“We don’t have any of the actual atomic things, but we just liked that era and we’re always on the look out for stuff from that time,” said Andrea Emerson.

Their store is located at 1109 Central Ave., just across the street from Daniel Pharmacy. Their Facebook page is “The Atomic Cat.”

Most of the big items in their store are posted on their Facebook page, along with their contact information.