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Olde Good Things

Architectural and Altered Antiques

Customer Showcase: Antique Chandeliers and Religious Stained Glass

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Here you see photos of a London Pub, The Old Queens Head, designed with many decorative sustainable items from architectural antique sources all over the world.  Riz Shaikh, owner and seasoned head designer of the Colombo Group with an eye for detail, envisioned a speakeasy design with warm sepia tones.  He sourced decorative ceramic tiles, wooden paneling and wainscoting, fireplace mantels, elegant chandeliers, and church stained glass windows.

 

He chose Olde Good Things for multiple huge 4 ft wide chandeliers and decorative slag stained glass to create the warm ambiance seen in these photos.  These multi-arm slag glass and bronze chandeliers once graced the banquet room of the famous Toy Center at 200 Fifth Avenue, which now houses the famous Italian market Eataly.  The ceiling and partition walls, as well as the decorative amber-toned stained glass which decorates the back bar, were reclaimed from a Presbyterian Church, The Church on the Edge, in Northern New Jersey.  The dark tone wood paneling adds warmth to his design. As seasoned designers know, the original patina is the key to its authenticity.

Our architecturologists are constantly seeking great finds like these chandeliers to make amazing statements in our customers’ creations. Only a fraction of these astounding treasures can be seen online, so feel free to call or visit our New York City and Los Angeles stores. You can also peruse our six-story department store warehouse in Scranton Pennsylvania, often referred to as a ‘candy store’ or ‘treasure trove’ for those with an eye for building with original antique architectural pieces in wood, marble, glass, and bronze.

 

If you wish to be featured as the next Customer Showcase, click here.

Step by Step: Restoring Salvaged Antique Tile Mural

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Olde Good Things carries a variety of beautiful and unique antique tiles, but sometimes they can be challenging to work with. Salvaged tile often has imperfections, like chips, cracks, and scrapes. Most challenging of all are gorgeous antique murals that are missing tiles in key areas of the design.

Some might call these incomplete murals a complete loss, but our customer Debbie Lee of San Jose, California, sees them as opportunities. Debbie applies her artistic skills to reconstitute the missing tiles and frames the murals in magnificent cut glass mosaics. She recently sent us some photos to demonstrate her process, from start to finish.

For this project, Debbie started with a charming figural tile set made by Ceramica Catteneo that she purchased from the Olde Good Things web store. The mural featured two warriors and a lion, framed by a colorful decorative border. Two crucial tiles were missing: the center of the first warrior’s body, and the face of the lion.

Undeterred, Debbie purchased two plain black tiles from us in the same size that she could use as blanks. She sanded down and painted the blanks, carefully matching the sandy color to the background of the tile mural. She then sketched out the missing components of the mural, first drafting cartoons on paper and finally painting the designs onto the blank tiles. Debbie also designed and constructed an impressive frame for the mural using cut glass in shades of blue and green, complementing the warm oranges and yellows in the mural.

 

The finished product looks seamless and entirely original. Our hats are off to Debbie for her skillful reconstruction of the missing tiles! We’re so grateful to see this mural whole again.

Shop our tile murals

Finding Your Style in a Wood Paneled Room

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When you think of a wood paneled room, you may think of an old study or library in an early to mid-1900s home. Some may think it’s a dated feature in older homes, but nothing could be further from the truth. The trickiest design element is creating eye-catching color balance, letting the walls, ceiling, floor, and furnishings work together. Think about how your favorite furnishings can pop. Everyone has a style of their own that they want their home to represent. We found examples of how four styles can be represented in a Wood Paneled Room.

Modern


Photo credit: Evan Joseph, Town & Country. Featured in Elizabeth Arden’s Former New York City Townhouse Is On the Market

Please look at how the wood paneling was painted a glossy gray paint paired with a sleek marble mantel. It creates an ultra-modern feel. The room balance was created using dark gray walls and ebony finished floors with a white ceiling and cream throw rug.

 

Minimalism


Photo credit: Evan Joseph, Town & Country. Featured in Elizabeth Arden’s Former New York City Townhouse Is On the Market

Minimalism represents living with very few items as possible. Decorating with just chairs, side tables, table lamps, and a throw rug gives that minimal feel. The room balance was created using dark chestnut carved panel walls and dark wood finished floors with a white ceiling, cream throw rug, and neutral gray furniture.

Traditional


Photo credit: PFD Design Group, The Spruce – 15 Elegant, Traditional Living Rooms

Traditional style rooms represent comfortable furniture, classic designs, and casual décor. The big huge windows create a bright airy atmosphere in such a neutral-colored room. The room balance is created with a white ceiling and light furnishings paired with the neutral rug and warm medium-toned wood paneling and flooring. Typically, in an antique paneled room, sconces were used as a source of lighting.

 

Eclectic

Photo Credit: Douglas Friedman, Harper’s Bazaar  – The Fashionable Life: A New York Fairy Tale

Eclectic is a mixture of textures, time periods, styles, trends, and colors. This room has a mix of modern sconces, a Victorian crystal chandelier, mid-century chairs, carved wooden paneled walls and mantel, and modern art. The room balance was created with a white ceiling, white rug, and bright metal furnishings paired with the dark medium tone paneled walls and floors.

 

In-Stock Wood Paneled Rooms

Here at Olde Good Things, we put our hearts into our salvage projects. We spend countless hours carefully removing one panel at a time, one bookcase at a time, from these special wood rooms. Now that you’ve seen above how you can decorate a wood paneled room in your style, it’s time to see what we have available in stock.

 

Ceiling Height Knotty Pine Library Room with Ladder

This knotty pine paneled library room was salvaged from one of New York City’s turn of the century townhouse estates. Click on the listing and see all the pieces included in this room. Picture adding antique sconces, antique paintings, many books, a bright solid colored rug, and a large executive desk.

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1940s Secret Wall to Wall Bookcase Library Room

Carefully extracted from a hidden library of an East Side Manhattan estate.  Click on the listing and see all the pieces included in this room. Picture adding brass sconces, a crystal chandelier, vintage globes and maps, many books, a bright oriental rug, and comfy leather furniture.

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Recessed Panel Dark Oak Paneled Room from Riverside Drive Estate

19th Century solid carved oak paneled room from Manhattan’s Riverside Drive. Click on the listing and see all the pieces included in this room. Picture adding crystal sconces, a petite crystal chandelier, a modern painting, antique lamps and a set of armchairs all positioned around the carved mantel.

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Tiger Oak Recessed Paneled Room

Tiger oak recessed paneled room with elaborately carved crown molding, arches, and columns. This is true 19th-century craftsmanship carefully extracted from one of the New York City estates of Huguette Clark. Click on the listing and see all the pieces included in this room.

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4 Foot Raised Panel American Chestnut or Oak Wainscot

Circa 1910 raised panel American chestnut or oak wainscot from an Upper East Side Manhattan church. Click on the listing and see all the pieces included in this room.

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Shop all the Paneled Rooms & Wainscoting available online

Top 10 Countdown: Most Valuable Salvaged Pieces at OGT

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Through the years, Olde Good Things has acquired some of our most priceless artifacts from old buildings getting a face lift or being demolished. We hear from time to time that our salvaged inventory is priced on the higher side. The actual salvage act from our team is sometimes overlooked.  Our demo team spends long hours and extreme manpower to preserve these items. It takes many unique skills to remove a giant marble mantel or stone frieze from the outside of the building while keeping it intact. It’s not all removing a door from the hinges.

We complied a list of the most valuable salvaged pieces we have online today. Please click into the listings to ask any questions or make an offers on a specific piece.

Let The Countdown Begin

 

10. Pair of 3 ft Salvaged Waldorf Conrad Suite Marble & Bronze Urns – $38,000 These are original to the Conrad Suite of the NYC Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

 

9. 10 ft Bronze Religious Sculpture of Moses Parting the Red Sea – $40,000 Salvaged from a North Bergen, New Jersey synagogue before its demolition.

 

8. White Red & Yellow Inlaid Marble Mantel from the US Ambassadors Suite of the Waldorf Astoria – $40,000 This mantel is original to Room 42A2 of the US Ambassadors Suite in the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

 

7. Massive 5 ft Gilt Bronze American Baroque Style Chandelier – $45,000 Huge 18 arm bronze chandelier featuring a crown of four cartouches, each bearing the New York City seal. Salvaged from a lobby of a New York City building.

 

6. Neoclassical Walnut Panel Room with Grand Carved Mantel – $45,000 Solid walnut panels from the negotiating room of the prominent Williamsburg Savings Bank in Brooklyn, New York.

 

5. 19th Century Louis XIV Style Gray Marble Mantel – $51,000 This is one of several additions from Danny Alessandro & Edwin Jackson mantel company.

 

4. Large Bronze Architectural Plaque from New York City – $70,000 From the National American Building, formerly located at 340 Madison Avenue, New York City.

 

3. 5 ft Silvered Bronze Ten Arm Georgian Caldwell Chandelier – $75,000 Manufactured by EF Caldwell, New York in 1895. 

 

2. 13 ft Monumental Tennessee Marble Mantel – $76,500 Made of 150 pieces of Tennessee marble, this mantel is now reconstructed and on display in our Scranton warehouse.

 

1. 1964 Solid Cast Bronze 12 ft Mid Century Modern Room Divider – $250,000 This was retrieved from the lobby of the Public Safety Building in Syracuse, NY. Plans were drawn in 1959; construction started July 1962 and was completed in 1964 by King & King Architects.

 

 

Out with the Olde Sale

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Our two warehouses in Scranton Pa. are now at full capacity, and we need to make room! For one month, our oldest inventory will be marked down forty percent.  Out with the old, in with more old!

Save 40% off site-wide, from 3/28/19 – 4/30/19.

Shop all Sale Items

 

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Salvaging the Walter Keane Staten Island Ferry

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When the architecturologists at Olde Good Things worked to salvage the former Staten Island Ferry the Walter Keane, they came ashore with a variety of marine architectural salvage treasures.

Exterior photos of the Walter Keane, formerly the Cornelius G. Kolff in its glory days as a steam-powered Staten Island ferry.

 

History of Staten Island Ferry

The beginnings of a Staten Island ferry system dates back to 1810, when Cornelius Vanderbilt began transporting passengers between Staten Island and the Battery in lower Manhattan on twin-mast sailboats. The ferry system grew over the years, changing hands from different investors and railway companies, gaining new boats and technologies as times changed, and finally coming under the control of New York City itself in the early 20th century to become the ferry system we know today. The modern ferry fleet has grown to include several classes of ships of varying sizes, but the ferry still travels between Staten Island and lower Manhattan. In 2005, a newly modernized terminal was dedicated at the Manhattan end of the ferry, with connections inside for the New York City Subway System as well as buses and taxi stands. Service is provided 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, running roughly every 30 minutes and having transported 23.9 million passengers in 2016 alone.

The history of the ship the Walter Keane goes even deeper than its use as a ferry. After 36 years of loyal service shipping passengers back and forth between Staten Island and Manhattan, the last two steam ferries, the Cornelius G. Kolff and its twin the Private Joseph F. Merrell , were docked in the East River as part of Rikers Island in 1987 to deal with prison overcrowding. The Kolff was later renamed after Walter B. Keane, a veteran correctional officer. The two ferries, along with several decommissioned British troop carriers, were repurposed as floating housing for the prison’s inmates. They were later used to as offices, inmate programs, and services.

Nautical Artifacts Salvaged

Our architectural salvage staff were able to recover a variety of pieces including salvaged anchors and weights, industrial chain, nautical bells, and marine equipment. The interior revealed beautiful architectural benches, tables, chairs, showers, industrial sinks, and nautical light fixtures.

 

Salvaged Boat Chain Custom Tables

The nautical anchor chains that we have salvaged from the Walter Keane and other maritime locations become custom tables in our Altered Antiques line. Our master craftsmen weld these chains together to make sturdy industrial table legs of varying sizes and shapes, from coffee tables to end tables in both round and rectangular designs. These chains can also be made into table lamps, providing an industrial or nautical motif to any project.

For more information about our nautical anchor chain tables, or to see what other treasures await in our Altered Antiques line, visit any of our Olde Good Things brick-and-mortar stores or stop over to our webstore to shop Nautical Antiques or Nautical Lighting.

Bright Lights & Vibrant Colors of Antique Stained Glass

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History of Antique Stained Glass

Stained glass windows are both stunning architectural features and awe-inspiring works of art. Traditionally made by adding metallic salts to molten glass to create colors and then blown or pressed into panels or shapes, these brilliantly colored windows can feature biblical scenes, animals and plants, landscape scenes, historical figures or abstract shapes depending on its intended use.

Bright Lights & Vibrant Colors of Antique Stained Glass

 

Throughout its thousand-year history, the term “stained glass” has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches, mosques and other significant buildings (such as government buildings) while a similar style, referred to as leadlight, was used primarily in homes and businesses. The major difference between stained glass and leadlight is largely in the manufacturing process and the more simplistic designs featured in leadlight. Stained glass windows, such as those commonly found in churches, usually include design elements that have been painted onto the glass and fired in a kiln before assembly. The extra time and cost involved in painting and firing the glass usually prevented its use in home or business architecture. Unlike stained glass windows which are traditionally pictorial or of elaborate design, traditional leadlight windows are generally non-pictorial, containing geometric designs and plant motifs.

Stained glass, as an art form, reached its height in the Middle Ages when it became a major pictorial form used to illustrate the stories of the Bible to a largely illiterate population, where it also became known as the Poor Man’s Bible. The use of stained glass continued through the years, gaining and losing popularity as styles changed. It regained popularity again in the late 1800’s, during the Victorian period, as there was a renewed interest in Gothic style architecture. The Arts and Crafts Movement also helped revive interest in stained glass, mostly through its ideas of traditional craftsmanship and the use of medieval, romantic, or folk styles of decoration. Artists such as Louis Comfort Tiffany (of Tiffany & Co.) developed new styles and techniques of stained glass making, elevating the art form to new heights. Today, both leadlight and stained glass are used in commercial and residential properties, helping to create intricately lit rooms with vibrant colors.

Salvaging Antique Stained Glass

Olde Good Things has always enjoyed salvaging stained glass whenever the opportunity arises. These stained glass pieces have come from churches, businesses and homes and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Fanlights, windows, doors with stained glass and more are available in the vast stained glass area at the warehouse at Olde Good Things. We also inquired an extensive stock of large single pieces of replacement antique stained glass, in every color you can think of. (please view this video for more information). These pieces are perfect for any stained glass repair craftsmen or artist, wholesale pricing is available.  Please inquire for more details. Our stained glass pieces sell incredibly quick, so be sure to stop by our Scranton, Pennsylvania location or view the Antique Stained Glass currently online.

 

 

Architectural Salvage in the Heart of Tribeca

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While New York City is a place of constant growth and change, it is also a city filled with numerous architectural wonders from the past. Sadly, as many New Yorkers are saying goodbye to some of the city’s fantastic buildings and older architecture, not much is done to save the more interesting aspects from a landfill. That’s why whenever older buildings are being renovated or demolished, the team of architecturologists from Olde Good Things work tirelessly to uncover and preserve these architectural artifacts.

Olde Good Things recently spent time salvaging pieces from several late 19th century buildings in the West Broadway city block in the Tribeca neighborhood, just a short walk from Ground Zero. The area, scheduled to be developed for condominiums and retail space, held multiple unique architectural details.

One of the many reclaimed pieces brought back from this Tribeca neighborhood were an abundance of original ornate ceiling tin. Tin ceilings were popular in businesses and homes until around the beginning of the 20th century and feature intricate stamped designs. These tin ceiling tiles will either be sold individually, or the OGT craftsmen will turn them into beautiful frames and ornate mirrors in a multitude of colors – perfect for any commercial or residential restoration projects.

Another interesting architectural feature recovered from this property were several original wrought iron balconies and fire escapes. Developed in the latter part of the 19th century for New York’s tenement apartments, wrought iron balconies and fire escapes soon found uses in other commercial, residential and industrial buildings. These reclaimed wrought iron balconies and fire escapes would add an unexpected element of classic city chic to any renovation.

Also recovered from our recent trip are several interior and exterior wooden doors. These doors, some of which include the original glass windows or hand-lettered company names, can be incorporated in modern homes to create a unique design style. These doors are also especially popular for use as exterior doors in older buildings.

While preservationists and those who love the “old” New York lament the demolition of these older properties, Olde Good Things is thrilled to be able to help save what we can so others may be able to repurpose or reuse these pieces of architectural history.

Whether you’re interested in one of these great architectural artifacts from this Tribeca neighborhood, or you’re looking for other unique antique features, you’re always welcome at any of our Olde Good Things stores or at our webstore. We’re sure the perfect piece of history awaits you.

 

View more Architectural Salvage Projects

Closer Look at the Salvaged Iron Yard in Scranton, Pa

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For years, Scranton, Pennsylvania served as a major industrial hub, not only for our country but also for the rest of the world. Industries such as coal mining, iron forging, and railway transportation all played a role in shaping Scranton and the surrounding areas. Scranton’s industrial boom is sadly behind us now, but it’s only fitting that Olde Good Things houses an enormous and awe-inspiring collection of iron and metalwork right in the heart of Scranton.

Video Tour of The Iron Yard

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Click to Take the Video Tour

 

Picture Gallery of the Iron Yard

Stepping foot into the iron yard at Olde Good Things can be a visually overwhelming experience. The yard is packed end to end with all kinds of metal pieces, from the wrought iron railing and fencing to decorative pieces and even cast iron tubs.

Some of the more interesting pieces housed in the iron yard are the cast-iron ship anchor chains. These anchor chains are repurposed by Olde Good Things for our Altered Antiques Chain Tables product line and are made into items such as coffee tables or lamps, which add a great rustic nautical element to any home or project.

The vast array of wrought iron gates, railing and fencing are also repurposed for a variety of interesting and creative uses. Many OGT customers have re-used fencing and gates in conventional ways for exterior dividing lines, entry gates, and garden trellises.  But they can also be used for many interior design details such as room partitions, wall décor, headboards and more.  With the number of assorted styles and shapes in the iron yard, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

 

Many of the pieces in the iron yard can be used as they are, ready to help bring in a certain charm to any décor. Metal wall art panels or ornate sculpted metal pieces could be used as a striking centerpiece to tie a room together. Large pulley wheels or ship wheels can bring an industrial flair to any project. Even collectible pieces like an authentic metal Coca Cola cooler, original metal street signs or branded oil drums have the right amount of vintage flair to liven up any room.

Olde Good Things spends countless hours scouring through industrial, hotel and residential locations to salvage only the most interesting metal pieces to add to our collection. Whether you’re an interior designer looking for the perfect piece for a client or a homeowner in the midst of a redecoration, we’re sure the piece you’re looking for is waiting for here at the iron yard in Olde Good Things in Scranton.

50% OFF Rouge Royale Marble Mantels Sale

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In an effort to break up some of the monotony of white mantels, we’re offering our customers a chance to bring in a classic and chic accent into their homes and workplaces with a 50% off all Rouge Red Marble Mantels. Our sale has already been announced and we are receiving an extraordinary number of phone orders – hurry while this sale and supplies last!

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