The midcentury ceramic lamp with floral design in relief had a story, had witnessed an actress’s home life in Beverly Hills, provided a comforting glow in an apartment overlooking a park in Signal Hill, and made a statement in my home for 17 years.

And it was time for this sentimentalist to let it go.

It wasn’t easy — it had long belonged to my dad and stepmom, gifted to them by the family friend who had inherited it — but taking it to Second Season Home Store somehow made letting go … painless.

At Second Season Home Store, all proceeds from sales support North Kitsap Fishline Food Bank & Emergency Services. And items sold at Second Season Home Store find themselves in a good home for a good price.

“You can give new life to some forgotten things,” said Felicia Kratzer, the home store’s new manager. “You can sell that item in a yard sale, but that’s not the answer. Fishline has a tried and true history of helping people, so you can feel good [about donating it to Second Season]. You’ll never know how you helped someone who needed a little bit of a hand up.”

In short: Garage space saved, an item gets new life in a new home, and another strand is woven into the local safety net.

Second Season Home Store is tucked away on 3rd Avenue near City Hall, in the former North Kitsap Fishline Food Bank, which moved to Viking Avenue in May 2014.

It may be the furniture shopper’s best-kept secret.

“There are some excellent antiques,” Kratzer said. The store’s target audience: “Someone who is looking for a one-of-a-kind piece, or a young person who is looking to furnish their first apartment or someone who is looking to replace some items with a piece so they can make their own statement.”

Display rooms and the showroom floor are decorated with furnishings; because all are donated, the home store can offer prices you won’t likely find elsewhere. And the longer a piece doesn’t sell, the lower the price.

Kratzer walked through some of the display rooms and pointed to her favorite items: A glass-top dining table for $80. Two dark-wood barstools on sale for $20; the same chairs were likely purchased downtown for $80 each. Framed black and white scenics by local photographer Wally Hampton, whose work is sold on FineArtAmerica, for $20 each.

On the upper end: Pieces by furniture maker Michael Amini, which sell for as much as $2,000, can be found for $800 here.

Second Season Home Store — not to be confused with Fishline’s Second Season Thrift Store downtown — is not a place for simple discards.

Jan Henson, thrift store manager who helps out at the home store, called the items in the home store “Higher quality, gently used.”

Couches are accepted as long as they can be cleaned and are in good condition. The store has turned away couches that couldn’t be cleaned or were otherwise unsellable.

A workspace is set aside for volunteers who specialize in simple fixes (on this visit, a nice rattan chair with a needy finish was reborn with classic dark-red paint and the addition of a matching seat pillow).

Sometimes, items are repurposed in unique ways (this is also a great place for ideas). A former filing cabinet — painted and turned onto its back — became a holder for rakes, shovels and other large garden tools. A filing cabinet drawer was painted and transformed into a planter.

A small cabinet was in fine condition but had a dark green finish, was scratched, and was not selling. Henson painted it teal, changed the knobs, added a shelf inside and the piece was reborn. It went from “ick” to trick.

“We have a lot of fun in here,” Henson said.

From left, Second Season Home Store manager Felicia Kratzer and colleague Jan Henson check out some repurposed items. Richard Walker / Kitsap Weekly

Second year for Second Season Home
Second Season Home Store celebrates its first anniversary with a new manager and big ideas for the future.

Kratzer and her family moved to the area on June 1; her husband, Michael, is a Navy officer at Bangor.

The Georgia native served as assistant director of the Salvation Army in St. Mary’s, Georgia. It’s like Fishline, with a food bank, a social service center and a thrift store.

“Before we moved here, I did a lot of research about the area. I was amazed at how long Fishline has been in Poulsbo,” she said. When she learned there was an opening for home store manager, “I was very interested.”

“This is such a great facility [and] the sky’s the limit. We’re now at the point where we’re pushing the marketing. And we hope to get more donors.”

Like Kratzer, Fishline executive director Mary Nader wants people to know “this jewel is here.” Second Season Home Store was an experiment, she said, borne out of a need to fulfill requests at the thrift store for bigger furniture pieces. She’s amazed by the home store’s success and the generosity of donors.

“Some of the pieces that are donated to us are stunning,” she said.

Second Season Home Store fills several niches in the community. It provides, in Henson’s words, “Good stuff at great prices.” It also generates revenue that helps Fishline meet needs in the community that seem to counter news of economic recovery.

We seem to live in times when many people are one paycheck away from being upended — rent or mortgage payments missed, a job lost, an unexpected medical expense.

“Those are the three things that throw people off their horses,” Nader said. “Single, older women are the fastest-growing category of homeless folks.”

Chances are you know someone who is struggling or is a Fishline client, but you don’t know it, Nader said. “The level of need [in the community] is hidden. Most of the people who are struggling the most, you’re not going to know [it].”

Fishline moved the food bank out of the 3,100-square-foot 3rd Avenue site to the 5,100-square-feet former Poulsbo RV site on Viking Avenue, and “it didn’t take us long to run out of space.” Food is stored in two semis donated by Hill Moving. But those semis are not refrigerated. And Fishline’s Viking Avenue site also has offices for Sound Works Job Center, Kitsap Community Resources’ Housing Solutions Center and Kitsap Mental Health.

Fishline breaks ground in January on a new 7,500-square-foot food bank with room for food storage and processing, the food market and related office space. The 5,000-square-foot building will be used for social services.

Fishline has raised $1.2 million of the $2.7 million it needs — $625,000 from the state, $300,000 from the C. Keith Birkenfeld Memorial Trust, and $300,000 from a capital campaign. Corporate and individual donors include Central Market, The Norcliffe Foundation, Kitsap Bank and Anne Alexander.

Besides being revenue generators, the home store and thrift store are also vehicles by which needs are met. Fishline clients getting back on their feet can get vouchers for necessary items at both locations.

So, that midcentury ceramic lamp — which got a careful cleaning and a new lampshade, by the way — could soon provide a comforting glow in the new home of someone getting a fresh start. That’s a comforting thought in itself.

Second Season Home Store needs volunteers for the front-of-store and Saturday drivers. Contact Kratzer at 360-930-2807.

— Second Season Home Store: 18916 3rd Ave., NE, Poulsbo. 360-930-2807. www.facebook.com/secondseasonhomestore. Hours: noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

This elegant $2,300 sideboard, by furniture maker Michael Amini, costs $800 at Second Season Home Store in Poulsbo. Richard Walker / Kitsap Weekly

Tools of the trade: The refinish and repair department. Richard Walker / Kitsap Weekly

From left, Second Season Home Store manager Felicia Kratzer, senior volunteer Donna Bumgarner and Second Season Thrift Store manager Jan Henson. Richard Walker / Kitsap Weekly

NORTH KITSAP FISHLINE AT A GLANCE
— Work hours donated by volunteers: 2,500 to 3,000.
— 2014 clients: 1,864 unique families, 4,895 individuals.
— 2014 visits to food bank: 31,000 household visits.
— 2015 year-to-date clients: 1,586 unique families, 3,945 individuals.
— 2015 year-to-date visits to food bank: 23,639 household visits.
— 2015 new clients registered for services: 335 households.