Vintage. Industrial. Recycled. Re-imagined. These are all words to describe the American Furnishings collection. The owners of this Ohio based retail store and web site have embraced the unique...
Disappointed with the quality they found in the generic stores and catalogs when furnishing their first home, Dennis & Denise Blankemeyer set about creating the types off items they wanted for themselves. Though the prices may be a bit steep, these pieces feel like they have a soul, or at the very least, some history.
Our favorites are the found objects from abandoned factories, foundries and barns that they have been given new lives as modern furniture. Carts have become coffee tables and work benches have morphed into kitchen islands. They have several locations in Ohio where they weld, build, sandblast, rewire, create and finish their furniture. According to their web site, all of their furniture is “Designed and Built in Middle America” - a rarity these days!
We love unique, vintage finds - American Furnishings really embodies these qualities.
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Love it!
There's a store like this in Connecticut but I can't remember the name. Argh!
i think the store in connecticut is
www.getbackinc.com
Great stuff, but I could never bring myself to pay those prices.
For similar styles, I recommend checking out local surplus departments. Nearly every public agency (cities, counties, states, universities) has a surplus department, and many of these departments show their stuff online. Of course, the offerings aren't nearly as well edited as American Furnishings, but they're also a fraction of the price.
Here in Seattle, the University of Washington
surplus store has well-aged wooden dressers for $25 - $30, cabinets for $20 - $50, oversized chalkboard and whiteboards for $5 - $15, and a wooden podium for $40. I'm also attracted to the "assorted lab glass".
Yes that's it. Thanks!
Ruthie from Community Forklift here (located in the DC area, we're a nonprofit thrift store that specializes in building materials - picture a Home Depot warehouse crossed with a Goodwill). We've definitely had people create interesting furniture from building materials they've found at our store - I barely recognize some of it once they're done! My current favorite is a little folding table that "Forklift Fan" Dana Schwartz made out of a music stand, an orphaned drawer originally from a kitchen cabinet, and a carpet tile reclaimed from an office building. It's very handy for resting his small percussion equipment during a gig (picture at http://communityforklift.com/creations.cfm)
But I bet there's some interesting finds up at the University of Maryland. I can't remember the name - it might be Terrapin Traders? But I've been told they have a store where they sell off old stuff from classrooms, labs, etc. very cheaply.