Why choose used or salvaged furnishings when you are shopping for items for your home or office? The impetus to choose used far outweighs the decision to go with newly-manufactured furnishings. Whether you are in the market for doors, light fixtures, hardware, or tables, salvaged is the way to go.
1. Quality
One reason to opt for salvaged or used antique furnishings is quality. You will find that antique furnishings and architectural salvage from older buildings are of higher quality than anything you can buy new.
Older wooden pieces, for example, were constructed from wood obtained from first-growth forests, which is denser and sturdier. Additionally, many wood furnishings were carved in one piece or joined using time-tested techniques. Often metal components of furnishings were made from pure metals or strong composites, not the weaker composites that are common today.
Older furnishings possess an integrity that you will admire and the durability that you can enjoy for a long time to come.
2. Beauty and History
Create ambiance in your home or workspace with salvaged and antique furnishings. Salvaged lighting, glass, architectural elements, hardware, and furnishings are versatile enough to incorporate in any design style. These unique pieces become a focal point for the room and if you know the history of the find, a centerpiece of conversation.
Many of Olde Good Things’ unique items have been rescued from famous historical buildings. For special pieces, such as our collection from Waldorf Astoria New York City or our copper-clad mirrors from the Flatiron building, we provide a succinct story of the piece’s history, a certificate of authenticity, or both.
3. Green Option/Eco-friendly
Used and salvaged furnishings are a green option. When you buy used, you take home a worthy piece that would have ended up in a landfill if it was not rescued. Instead, the rescued items can be recycled, reused, and admired as the strong, beautiful materials they are.
Additionally, you are doing your part to reduce the pollution and waste that results from the manufacture of new items. Olde Good Things recycles over 50% of inventory that would be thrown away. Here is one of our articles on why Olde Good Things “thinks green is beautiful”.
4. Better for DIY Projects
Salvaged wares are custom-fitted to DIY projects because you are doing your part to preserve a piece of history. Fitting an elegant antique treasure into your decor scheme can be a challenge, albeit a worthy one.
Every step of your project, you will be hands-on with a piece of history, planning how to fit it to your custom speculations, and enjoying the fruits of your labor with a unique item that you helped design-build.
Check out any one of our customer showcase articles to see what OGT clients imagined and built, and get some tips from what they did to rehome their salvaged furnishings to bring about an astonishing end result.
5. Custom Alterations
One of the best attributes of used and salvaged furnishings is that you can match or mix them with your style and customize as necessary. Some clients choose to alter the specs of our antique salvage themselves during installation. Others who prefer ready-made pieces can request customization from the workshop or see what talented craftspeople visualized for them in our line of Altered Antiques.
If you need ideas on how to use salvaged and reclaimed items, take a look at our blog’s previous articles or contact someone from Olde Good Things. Our inventory offers a stunning collection of used and salvaged furnishings reclaimed from famous architecture.
