Our Story

Austin Warren has had a passion for design his entire life. He started out doing small design jobs for family & friends while running his full-time lawn care business. In 2011, a dream became reality when Austin launched the original idea for JOYS at the age of 19.

Ali Warren has always loved art, creation, and design. Growing up, she often had a notebook around to sketch in for fun. Ali started working in store and behind-the-scenes at JOYS on day one while working as a hairstylist in the early days.

Austin & Ali are high school sweethearts as well as a husband & wife team. As partners in business throughout the JOYS journey, they have supported each other in growing the brand as well as in their own pursuits of joy. Now they are partners in parenting as they navigate family life with their 2 daughters, Lola & Lenora.

In 2011, JOYS opened as a clothing & home boutique on Historic Main Street in St. Charles, Missouri.

The name "JOYS" is a nod to Austin's Grandma Joyce. Grandma Joyce always shed a beautiful light on those around her even during hardships in life. Living up to her fitting name, her pursuit of joy and the way that she shared it with others certainly left a legacy. With this way of life instilled in Austin, he became inspired to blend his love for design and his pursuit of joy into a business and to remind others to "Find the JOYS in your Life."

JOYS started a private label in 2013 and wholesaled to other boutiques across the county. Those were the days of creating physical look-books to send out to potential buyers.

In 2012, "The Warehouse" was our first opportunity to expand our brick & mortar store into an old soda bottling factory directly behind our original storefront. During this time, we housed many fun oddities & collectibles as well as our clothing, accessories, home decor, & gifts. Later on, we opened this entire building into what we now use as our Market.

In 2013, The Loop Store became a great opportunity to expand out of our local market into the metropolitan area. Just blocks away from a major university, it allowed us to branch out to students from out of state as well! Sharing the JOYS look with a diverse young audience was so much fun!

In 2016, we opened up the entire soda bottling factory building, formerly the space we called "The Warehouse," and introduced JOYS Collective Market.

This was the start of inviting local artisans & vendors into JOYS and giving an opportunity to other small businesses to have their own space inside of a brick & mortar store.

This was a wonderful journey in which we met many interesting people and learned a lot about working with all different start ups. The success was great and inspired some vendors to even branch out and open their own stores!

Owning a historic VW Bus was a lifelong dream! When we first saw our bright-blue-beauty we immediately knew it would make others feel those good vibes and it instantly became like a mascot for our shop. We love seeing people smile and do a peace sign as we drive by, or stop and take a selfie by it when it's parked. It really embodies that joyful feeling that we strive for. All aboard the JOY Bus!

2019 was the start of expanding JOYS into a hospitality brand.

With our love for design and curation, we dipped our toe into the world of airbnb. One in a nearby bungalow and one in the loft apartment above our Market, we gave these short term rentals the same fun & funky vibe as you would find inside our storefront.

It was so fun designing these spaces. We have met so many wonderful people from around the world and hearing about all of the new memories shared in our short term rentals is the cherry on top! This new venture validated our belief that JOYS is a lifestyle. Our dream is to have airbnbs in some of our favorite destinations!

Today, we refer to our entire Main Street establishment as JOYS Main Street Market. This includes the old brick house that is our original storefront as well as the old soda bottling factory.

We are a clothing & home boutique as well as a gift shop with fun spectacles around every corner! Over the years we've branched out into merchandise with more of our own designs and we continue to work with other artisans & curators in our local community as well!

A new Generation of JOYS!

In 2016 we had paused findthejoys.com to focus on expanding our local brick & mortar business and brand. It was a busy whirlwind of managing business and family. Along the way, we knew that the day would come for us to get back at it!

Now that our online store has relaunched, you can shop JOYS from the comfort of your own home! The new version is bigger and better! We are offering 20x the merchandise that we did in the past and have expanded into a variety of different categories from women's clothing to mens, kids, toys, accessories, home decor, furniture, gifts, & more.

Find the JOYS in your LIFE!