Murat Tasdemir and his business associates bought a piece of land in Istanbul that they thought would be a perfect spot for a hotel.

They needed money. So in 1997, Tasdemir, who had been in the carpet business, volunteered to do his bit by coming to America to sell Turkish rugs. And because a friend of his owned a bed and breakfast here, he stopped on Bainbridge Island.

“I wanted to bring the beauty of Turkey to the United States,” Tasdemir said. “And I was going to send the money back to Turkey to build the hotel.”

But beauty of another kind caught his eye when he met and married Lisa. And while the hotel has been built, the Tasdemirs have been doing their own building on Bainbridge, most recently opening Lilies on Winslow Way to complement the Tasdemir carpet store on Madison Avenue in Lundgren Station.

Like a lot of couples, the Tasdemirs met at work. Both were leasing space in the Bad Blanche antique store, where Lisa was selling furniture and Murat was selling carpets.

“It was an East-meets-West relationship,” said Lisa, a Kenmore native who came to Bainbridge as a single mom after spending a decade in Pennsylvania.

They merged their lives and their businesses. First, they opened in a small corner of Lundgren Station along Winslow Way in September of 1999, then moved to slightly larger space on the Madison Avenue side in June 2000. They sold both furniture and carpets at those two stores.

Last fall, they moved into the Winslow Way space next to Bad Blanche, formerly occupied by Loomis Travel, and divided their wares. Lilies sells furniture, gifts and home-decor items, while Tasdemir is carpet only.

“This is eclectic interior design with an Eastern flavor,” Lisa said. “We have been able to add furnishings and accessories to what we previously carried.”

The accent pieces have a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor. Candle-holding Turkish lamps of brass and bronze with glass shades in a multitude of bright colors hang from the front window – “great for when the power goes out,” Lisa said.

Shoes and handbags are made from remnants of carpets. Large decorative pitchers that appear to be silver are actually hand-tooled copper called Semmeware.

“In Turkey, these are decorative items made for imperial families,” said Murat, explaining the significance of the patterns. Although only a year old, they are nonetheless “antiques” in the sense that the craftsman who made them has died, so there will be no more like them.

The vintage furniture from estate sales and antique marts from around the country has no particular geographic orientation, but can fit with the Middle Eastern furnishings.

“When you see these things displayed in the same space, you see how well they can go together,” Lisa said.

While the furnishings are a more-or-less constant inventory, the furniture changes constantly.

“Something you see on one visit to the store probably won’t be here next time,” she said.

Items can be taken out for in-home trials, or Lisa will do an in-home consultation, she said. She also keeps files of what her clients are looking for.

“It is really rewarding to find what people need for their home, particularly when we can do it for less than their budget,” she said.

Lilies opened the day after Christmas, only to be greeted by a power outage.

“A woman saw a dining room set in the window, and she it was just what she wanted. I said she had to see it in the light, so she came back with a flashlight to look,” Lisa said. “We made our first sale without a cash register and without power.”

The business name comes from the biblical passage concerning the lilies of the field.

“It’s about how we should not worry,” Lisa said.

Murat said that by devoting the whole of the Lundgren Station store to carpets, he has expanded his inventory to over 1,000 carpets, all hand made.

Ultimately, the Tasdemirs want to recombine their stores – Murat envisions a store with 3,000 to 4,000 square feet selling both carpeting and furniture. And he is sure it will be on Bainbridge Island.

“I had to give up everything in Turkey to stay here, but this is such a blessed country where you can make your dreams come true,” he said. “And my love of this place has grown more and more.”