FARMINGTON – While other teenagers browsed the malls, Christine Geisser loved touring old barns and antique shops. Her interest in antiques led her to open her own antique shop on Broadway on Wednesday.

“I’ve always had an interest in antiques and have just been drawn to them,” she said of the passion that developed while growing up on the Massachusetts seacoast. As a 17-year-old she was buying antique books but thought, “I’ll never be able to do this but, I’ll keep this idea.” Now at 40, her idea has blossomed into a three-room shop in the site of a former accountant’s office at 127 Broadway.

In recent years, Geisser raised and home-schooled her children in Industry and became an antique dealer, but now is the time to bring her interests to the next level, she said.

“I’ve watched what people like and what they buy,” Geisser said of her experience running a half space and working for Serendipity Antiques. “But, I’ll need to be resourceful, creative and diversify for Broadway Antiques.

After finding a space where she can run a business and live above it, Geisser then filled the space over the summer with items defined as early American, Victorian, country primitive and shabby-chic, she said. Attending auctions and buying estates, she’s picked up items that she likes and then researches the items.

While she doesn’t plan to take consignment pieces or do appraisals, she can basically tell people what price items are going for from her studies, she said.

What defines antique? The standard rule is anything over 100 years, she said. But, then there are vintage items that are 40-50 years-old and retro items that were popular in the 1970-1980s.

The shop, open Tuesdays through Saturdays, will stay open later on Friday nights for people who come into town for dinner or a movie, she said.