Reuse. Rehabilitate. Restore. Architectural salvage and repurposed pieces for the home.
Attention! Checklist Home Services has posted a curb alert for a pink bathroom. Check out that fabulous double sink vanity including two pink sinks. But wait, that’s not all! If you act now, they will throw in that awesome pink toilet.
Alls ya need to do is comment as to why you want the pieces on the Checklist blog and it can be yours for free. And yes, you can even use their services to install.
Located in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. Good luck!
After seeing Big Ang’s awesome pink disco kitchen (Yes, I sometimes catch Mob Wives. Don’t judge.) I told my husband that I’d love to create some kind of retro funky disco looking basement in Rockaway. He was all like “Leave the damn basement as is.” But then I walk into Build it Green Gowanus yesterday and fell deeply in love with this couch thingy. 300 bucks. Easy choice if it was my house that I’m going to live in, but an investment property that is already beyond my budget?
It’s just so friggin awesome. Quick! Someone give me a room to design around this thing!
Me and The Moms took a trip upstate for a couple of days last week. We drove the Old 17 Route so we could pass the Red Apple Rest Stop. The Red Apple was THE place to stop before the NY Thruway was built. Back when it took 5 hours to get to Sullivan County. It was still open up until 2007 when it became condemned.
While we stopped to get pictures, there was someone else swinging by to have a look, remembering the place from his childhood. I wonder how many people go out of their way to check out the old rest stop. Could be a great restoration project and business venture.
The number is on the “For Sale” sign below. Just sayin’.
During the holiday season, the MTA runs vintage subway and buses along certain routes at scheduled times. The cost is the same as any other ride. It just might not get you all the way to your destination. Click on the link to see schedule.The wicker seat trains stopped running in 1969. I am so old that I actually remember riding these a couple of time. I would have been 4 years old. They didn’t come often, but it was a treat when I got one. The lack of air conditioning was always fun. People sweating into the grooves of the seats. Ah, but they had overhead fans! And it was 35 cents for a token. Remember those little coin thingies they had before Metro Cards? Surely, you’re not THAT much younger than me!
If you’ve never been, the NY Transit Museum is one of the coolest places in Brooklyn. You can view these vintage trains and buses any time of the year.
We’re ba-aack! We had a fun filled few days in Dublin caring for Mum in Law at home after she was kicked out of the hospital and not sent to rehab. Apparently, the Irish recession has had an effect on the health care system. Many Americans, myself included, are envious of the socialized medical benefits other countries receive. Michael Moore’s Sicko made it very clear where our system fails. It’s true! Our system sucks. But it’s not all rainbows and unicorns in Ireland either.
After waiting around the first day for the social worker and/or physical therapist who never showed, we rented a wheelchair out of pocket for the week. It got her out of the house, but if she ever wants to walk properly again, she needs the therapy, no? The appointment was a cable company kind of thing (“We’ll show up on Friday”) They didn’t pick up the phone either.
Luckily, Brother in Law Peter (rear) is a hard ass London lawyer, so he can work his magic. I’m sure many elders say “Oh now, I don’t want to make a fuss…” so they won’t know how to deal with someone who does talk back. The photo was taken on the grounds of the Newbridge House (I think) in Donabate where Brother in Law John lives. He lives in Donabate, not in the Newbridge House. Just wanted to make that clear.
But on to Mum in Law’s house. The armoire above was in Brother in Law John’s room when he was growing up. Ok, The Human League and Nick Cave were easy to figure out, but who is that in the middle? I just got it now as I was writing this, not because I recognized him, but because I know he’s from one of John’s favorite bands.
I love the Aga! She doesn’t really use it to cook much anymore, but it does heat the kitchen. Mum in Law does not own a proper toaster so the Aga is one way of making toast. See contraption below.
The other way of making toast is on that grill thing above the stove.
The house doesn’t have central heating. When I first started visiting over 20 years ago, there wasn’t a plug in heater in every room. I’m not sure, but these may have been purchased to appease the finicky American daughter in law. Originally, I was told to put on another sweater and bring a hot water bottle to bed. Most Dublin homes have converted to central heat now.
The water heater is located in a closet on the second floor. You can get two, maybe three showers and then you have to wait for it to refill. It also serves as a towel warmer.
Clean coal technology? For the fire place.
Peat or turf briquettes. I have no clue how environmentally clean these are, but Ireland has a distinct smell when people use these during the winter. It’s a good smell. Like rugged earth.
This is the dishwasher. Many people soap up the dishes and dry them without rinsing. I need to rinse!! But when I get lazy, I sometimes do it the way everyone else does and rinse just my own as I need them.
Elaborate shower system. When I first started visiting, this wasn’t in place. It was bath or bust. I’m 4’11” and I have to bend my knees to fit under this.
Ah, yes, my sanctuary! There’s one bathroom upstairs in the house. I won’t go into my privacy issues, but let’s just say I use the outhouse a fair bit when I need to do my thing.
The Home Depot of Ireland. We hit it one day when we were looking for safety bars and such.
Found the safety bars. Gee, can you tell he knows his photo is being taken?
If one doesn’t want to overwork their water heater or if they don’t have one, this is the type of shower they can get. Those dials control the temperature as well as the water flow.
Skinny house in Blackrock.
The Blackrock Market has been a favorite of mine for years! There are stalls of antiques and vintage goodies at reasonable prices. I was a little disappointed this time to see more new dealers. Many were selling handmade items, but I still prefer the old finds.
**Archive. Originally posted January 30, 2008.
Since we looked at vintage cabinets yesterday, we figured we would give you some options for matching retro laminate countertops.
Formica’s Classic Boomerang: Coral
We all know the biggie: Formica. Their “Classics” collection includes Boomerang, originally designed in the 50’s. This pattern bounces back to us (Get it? Because it’s a boomerang) in 4 historically kitsch colors, including aqua, coral, charcoal and skylark.
Formica’s Classic VirrVarr: Light Blue
Also available from the Classic collection is the VirrVarr, a European pattern. VirrVarr means criss cross in Swedish. This only comes in white and blue.
Read about Formica’s participation in environmental programs such as LEED and Greenguard here.
Nevamar, from Panolam Industries, came out with the Twist N’ Shout retro design not too long ago. There are 3 different color options: orange, blue or yellow.
Nevamar’s LamMate’s “Way Cool Encounter”
Nevamar offers custom print laminates that can allow any digital file to be incorporated into the laminate. They also offer some funky solid colors. They are not as readily available as Formica, so check out their dealer locator.
Nevamar Laminates are Greenguard certified.
Wilson Art offers 4 “retro” designs under it’s Indie Collection. They also have some groovy retro looking designs such as:
See here for Wilson Art’s Green Guard certification and other environmental info.
I got a storage space! I’ll be moving in this Saturday, so the garage clean out begins. First of all, do you realize how difficult it is to find a 24 hour storage facility in Brooklyn? Nearly impossible! I don’t need to get in there at 3am, but I do need access on Sunday mornings and evenings when most of these places have “part time” Sunday hours. The only reason this place allows it is because my space is an outdoor container. Hopefully, it’s drier than my garage or basement.
Anyway, I pulled this old pram out of the garage. I bought it back in winter and planned to sell it as is, but it was looking pretty sad so I decided to clean it up. I used to think rust was the end of the world, but I found a few cleaning tips online that saved the day. (Sorry, no before and after pictures)
Cleaning rust off chrome:
Fine steel wool and water
or
Tin foil and water
or
Coke instead of water
Polish afterwards to “seal” it.
I tried both methods and I’ve gotta say that I was pretty impressed with the tin foil. The chrome sparkles now!
I’ve been meaning to paint these old school chairs that were sitting in the garage. The idea was to create a set of four, each a different color. But I did one and couldn’t decide whether or not I liked unpainted better, so I just did one more and left it at that. I wasn’t sure of the word and design either, so I just did one. What do you think? Worn wood or painted?
Well, it didn’t rain. But the sun doesn’t like Sundays lately. What did Sunday ever do to The Sun to deserve this? Anyhoo, the market wasn’t jam packed this week, what with Passover and the Pope in town, there were only a bunch of heathens like myself lurking about. Still, I only managed to get down 2 aisles.
Finally got to Lewis Jaffe’s booth after 2 weeks. He comes from Philadelphia with Victorian hardware from demolished buildings in the area. He’s also a “book plate junkie” hence the name of his blog. Not something I’d consider myself interested in, but it is actually fascinating stuff. It’s an art form that many people (or just me) forget about. Lew Jaffe is in space L8.
Shoprico is a chi chi design firm on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. They represent various furniture and lighting designers alongside the work of founder Rico Espinet. But what grabbed my attention at the market were their big molds. They sell huge sand molds that are ready to display. How cool are these things? Space L14
Looks like crappy weather Sunday for the third week in a row. These flea market organizers have some bad weather karma they need to deal with. It hasn’t rained on us yet (Yeah, I just jinxed it), but the sun hasn’t been around either. Cleanse your auras or something, guys.
So this week I hit the mother load of tacky thrift store paintings. Check it out…the Native American chick against the dark background: velvet. It just doesn’t get any better than that! Unless it’s Elvis. Look at the clown. Classic. I run a high end racket for people with exquisite taste.
I picked up the horse from the same guy. It’s the one I had as a kid. He came back to me! This one is pretty scary, with dark eyes and fuzzy “hair”. I might not be able to part with him.
GuyIBuyStuffFrom tells me he’s cleaning out a house next week that has tons of 50’s toys in the attic. What does this have to do with “homes”? Who cares? Toys are more fun! How does “Reclaimed Toys” sound?
I must say, I’m having lotsa fun finding small vintage items for the flea market. Kitsch is my specialty. The uglier the better. I stick to classic Victorian in my own home, so this is a great outlet for me to let loose. In search of “kitsch decor” I stumbled upon these fine websites that I’ve added to my blogroll.
This wasn’t a new discovery. I’ve written about her in the past, but for some reason I never included her in my blogroll. Shear laziness. Oops.
Jonathan Butler and Eric Demby check in vendors
Last week we reported that we did ok-but-not-great on the inaugural Brooklyn Flea weekend. Well, our tweaking worked! We doubled our intake by offering smaller, less expensive items (read: flea market “junk”).
All of our tarnished silver plated tableware: gone. Most of those dusty old lamps: gone. Other big hits….We sold a vintage but new in box Seal-o-matic that my husband thought I was nuts to get. Our 50’s stroller had people debating the vintage (one woman thought it was from the 30’s) and playing with it, but didn’t actually sell until the end of the day. Horribly ugly kitsch items were big sellers. But the biggest hit of the day was the green spindle bed that sold in the morning but stayed in the booth. At least (at least!!) 25 people said they would’ve bought it. So, I need to get me some more spindle beds.
But enough about us! Here a few primo vendors I came across:
Molly Worth reinvents vintage chairs for her company “Chairloom“. Gorgeous stuff that I spotted from 3 aisles away. Her online prices are slightly higher than that of the flea’s. (Space V6)
I caught Mohawk Studios unloading their stuff and knew I had to visit their booth. They create decorative art and functional items out of salvaged metals, etc. Their prices are very affordable and the big dude with the mohawk is willing to negotiate. If you dare. Unfortunately, the website they gave me doesn’t work. (Space B6)
Mohawk creations
How sweet is this stuff from Humble Beginnings? Carolina, who refused to be photographed, (but you can see what she looks like here) told me that it takes her time to get around to doing things….like a website. I loved her booth! Did I mention how sweet it is? You can find her at the flea every weekend (Space E10) or email her: carolina44Sataoldotcom
**Space numbers are subject to change. I was moved over a space this weekend. Try this link the day before.
Tarnished? Yeah, so?
Last week I did ok at the Brooklyn Flea, but not phenomenal. It was nobody’s fault but my own as 20,000 people came through and some vendors actually sold out.
My mistake? I thought people would want a finished product. I made sure to bring only clean, refurbished handmade items. And I charged for them. But I think many people were looking for the bargains. I know that’s I do.
So I picked up a ton of small junky items this week. I’m going to display them, all dusty and sh*t and price them at less than $20. I don’t mind parting with pieces when I haven’t put in the time and effort. I’m having more fun hunting down these goodies than restoring antiques anyway.
Come visit! Bishop Loughlin Memorial HS in Fort Greene, on Lafayette Ave. between Clermont and Vanderbilt Ave. Booth C-5.
I’m not rewiring and it’s so freeing!
How easy to pack fabric and linens!
Emilia will be working with me every Sunday.
The coldest day of the year didn’t keep people away from the Brooklyn Flea. What happened to the sun yesterday?! Man, was it cold out there!!! So, that’s my excuse for this semi lame post you are about to read. I didn’t get around the whole market to take pics and interview vendors as I had planned because I just wanted to sit under my moving blanket, which is what we were using to prevent hypothermia.
We finally nabbed a couple of VERY WORN Carhartt coats from Eddie. We looked like we were homeless and probably scared people off, but we were warm. Eddie was there with his Dad (a 70 something year old man who looks 30). So Eddie would be Lamont to his Dad’s Fred?
I’m sure Brownstoner will post how many folks came through, but sometime during the afternoon I heard that the count was at 9,000 and they were expecting it to hit 15,000 by the end of the day. Not bad for a first day with arctic temperatures.
We had fun. Made some dough. Met a bunch of cool people.
Apologies for all the concussions caused by our sign being too low. We realized it was actually the tent that wasn’t fully extended. Oops.
So whom did I meet?
The Silver Nest divas.
There are a handful of sane commenters on Brownstoner and Debii and Suzanne of Silver Nest are 2 of them. I’m the third. I’ve known them online for awhile. Emilia had the pleasure of working with them at the Salvage Fest last year, but it was my first time meeting them in the flesh.
Reclaimed lamps from Silver Nest
Silver Nest (website under construction) offers four lines: Silver Nest, an amalgamation of things from reclaimed objects, original photography of architectural detail on pillows, and other objects. Jenny Sparrow, figures, faces, dolls, etc worked into jewelry, shadowboxes, decorative boxes, etc. Sewing Diva is mostly pillows. Blatherscat Lighting, vintage table lighting, cleaned up, often rewired, with new shades, etc.
The Moss & Ash chicks were cold too.
From their website: “Moss & Ash was born out of Annabel and Anna’s desire to share their ability to turn frumpy grandma nightgowns and muumuus into fashionable, fresh, and affordable vintage clothing. They re-make old, outdated dresses into one-of-a-kind pretty pieces, selling them with various vintage accessories that culminate in the edgy, yet feminine look that they both embrace.”
“The Bowling Alley Guy”
Couterevolution. Jim Malone crafts countertops, tables and benches out of reclaimed wood from bowling alleys. Bowling alleys began phasing out real wood for lanes in the 1980’s and Jim salvages these vanishing resources. Cool stuff!
Revere Sugar Refinery, Red Hook by Bob Marvin
Got to meet Bob Marvin of the Fort Green Photography Association. He’s the 4th sane commenter on Brownstoner. That leaves room for just one more. Bob does some fine black and white prints and still gets to work in the darkroom, which is a dying art. I didn’t get a chance to get over to his booth, but I was lucky enough that he stopped by mine. Next week, Bob!
Vintage fabrics from Repro Depot
The Silver Fox vendors woke up at 2am to come down from Albany.
Kick ass sign by Emilia
Anyone who has been paying attention knows that I’ll be joining Brownstoner’s Brooklyn Flea every weekend as of this Sunday. It will be a coming out of sorts as I’ve only had an online store presence (and Craigslist).
Before my photography career got off the ground I sold jewelry made from my photographs. I was a street vendor, then graduated on to markets (Tower and Columbus), street fairs and crafts shows. So, yeah, this is a step backward (to the 80’s). But sometimes that’s not a such bad thing. I’m looking forward to being creative again and not having to kiss client buttocks.
In preparing for the flea, I’ve taken over EVERY room in two houses. (See photos below) If I earn one penny on Sunday, I am RUNNING, not walking to get a work/storage space. And I’m hiring some help! So keep your fingers crossed for me. No better yet, come buy some sh*t!
The original plan for the Reclaimed store was to represent other artisans. However, I got worried about relying on them to fill orders when they couldn’t even return my calls. So, now I’m selling antiques and vintage fixtures and furnishings. Some restored or reconfigured, some “as is”. I’ll throw in functional (and non functional) art as I get to it. I have tons of vintage black and white NYC photos that I’ve already started playing with. I’ve got a light fixture fetish because they’re easy to restore and schlepp. So, plenty of those. Price points: Industrial hooks and antique drawer pulls starting at $8.00 up to $1350 for sink vanities.
Brooklyn Flea will take place every Sunday from 10am to 5pm—rain or shine—starting April 6, 2008, at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, on Lafayette Ave. between Clermont and Vanderbilt Ave. Look for Reclaimed Home at the Clermont fence, 5 vendors in from Lafayette. That’s where we’ll be this Sunday. Don’t know if it’s the same every week. Come say hello!
BTW, got the wheels. Don’t come a knockin’!
Trial run of new tent. The dogs liked it.
Bed Stuy living room. Renovations halted.
Beacon living room. Fixture rewire center.
Another fetish: mannequins and scary dolls.
Still needs to be rewired.
Too lazy to take good photo and upload to store.
Ever want to create your own wallpaper design? Design Your Wall offers the service for a $25-$150 layout fee plus $6.50 per square foot for the paper.
They accept original artwork or digital and will help with any questions you might have. You can get wallpaper, borders or murals printed up from your own images.
You don’t have to print pictures of your puppy dog. Here’s something else to consider. They can also reproduce vintage patterns. They do have a few lovely samples on their site. Or you can do produce your own.
If you’re buying all that newly manufactured wallpaper, you can alleviate some eco-guilt by created your own green paste for the job.