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“I just want people to feel cozy—I want people to feel welcome,” says Kelley Birkinbine, owner of Morgan Alley’s newest retail occupant, Bentley Fleurs. “That’s why I call this an experiential boutique.”
Indeed, from the ornate floor-to-ceiling paper flower displays to floral-perfumed candles and the fresh-cut flowers Birkinbine arranges at a counter in the rear of the storefront, every sensory detail of the shop’s footprint is considered through a soft, fragrant floral lens. Because of its assortment of French imports, its towering floral sculptures, and the fresh flowers that erupt from Birkinbine’s floral arrangement station, the overall impression Bentley Fleurs leaves walks a line between Francophile retail, immersive art gallery, and fantasy flower shop, where one can score crackers with colorful baked-in blossoms, pots of glitter-infused organic local honey, and bouquets of roses and tulips that look more like Audrey II than drugstore Valentine’s Day fodder, all in one stop.
Bentley Fleurs, which opened in February, is the brainchild of Birkinbine, an established floral designer whose extravagant displays have won her numerous awards, most recently Best in Show at the Fleurs de Villes Floral Expo in both 2023 and 2024. “I grew up here, I used to dream of having a shop like this,” Birkinbine says, gesturing to the Morgan’s Alley ironwork visible from her front window.
Though sensorially conceptual and ornate, the shop is also easy to browse and uniquely accessible; a floral and gift boutique with a distinctly feminine point of view and an inventory inclusive of anyone who revels in a similarly cozy aesthetic. Bentley Fleurs’ retail concept is straightforward. “I had a checklist,” Birkinbine says. “It had to be floral or French-inspired, and it had to feel good.”
That inspiration bloomed into a boutique that maintains a focus on small, sustainable businesses with similarly joyful mission statements and an adjacency to Birkinbine’s botanical theme. Oregon’s own Jacobsen Salt, and Ruby D Tonics feature prominently, as do an assortment of imported French goods, like sustainably made bags from General Knot & Co. and luxurious Panier des Sens lotions. There is a concisely curated selection of home bar accents like floral salts and sugars from Flouwer Co. and booze-free aperitivos from Wilderton. Beyond the bar (Bentley’s displays are mostly made from reclaimed vintage saloon chattel and feature rich mahogany and brass accents), there’s a range of gifts for children and adult floraphiles alike. A small selection of children’s books with garden magic themes pepper the shop, a collection of lush fine art prints created by Birkinbine herself color the walls, and a display stocked with sustainable small batch chocolates from Eclat and Fine & Raw make the shop feel like a gift or souvenir for anyone could be created here.
“It’s all very botanical,” Birkinbine says.
Most days, shoppers can find perfectly lovely prearranged bouquets from a flower stand at the store’s threshold, but Bentley Fleurs’ floral selection deviates from the conventional, featuring dazzling phenotypes and botanicals—many from Birkinbine’s own acreage just outside Vancouver. “These plum blossom branches are from my own tree,” she says, shifting a floral display several feet tall. “And these are veggie roses,” she adds, handing me a long-stem rose in full bloom, its petals tinged with the fading greenish-gold of mature Brussels sprouts, its center a cocktail of fuchsia, yellow and orange threads.
A bucket of fresh tulips in her flower fridge displays blossoms with alien-green petals fraying into pink fringe at the edges. Her arrangement in progress, a boisterous bouquet of parrot tulips, features blossoms still tightly furled. “When these bloom, they get huge,” she says. “Some flowers get so much more beautiful as they age.”
The disarming nature of the award-winning, large-scale floral designs Birkinbine is known for has repeatedly brought her moments of connection with those admiring her work. “There’s something about building in public,” she says, describing her engagement with visitors at live floral expos and events. “And I’m experiencing that miracle right now.”
The same arrangements that have captivated such diverse swaths of flower aficionados now influence the grandiosity of her boutique’s walls. “When I’m creating arrangements live,” Birkinbine says in reference to her illustrious floral design career, “people who would walk right past me regularly, they stop, they talk, they look. Totally different groups of people take pictures for each other. Something about flowers drops people’s guards, and I get the same reaction in here.”
As for Birkinbine’s assertion that her boutique is experiential—we are inclined to agree. Everything about Bentley Fleurs seems designed to elicit a joyful swoon, which is a fabulous energy to feel at what is essentially the friendly neighborhood flower shop.
The Haul: Sparkle & Honey (glittering organic honey infused with mica and iron oxide) by The Enchanted Hive ($18.50)
BUY IT: Bentley Fleurs, 515 SW Broadway, Suite 102, 971-645-9745, bentleyfleurs.com. 10 am–6 pm Monday and Wednesday–Saturday, 10 am–5 pm Sunday.