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Olde Good Things

Architectural and Altered Antiques

Philadelphia Civic Center Frieze Finds a New Home in Bayonne New Jersey

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Back in 2005, the Philadelphia Civic Center was one of Olde Good Things’ largest salvage jobs of the year. We salvaged treasures from the inside and outside of the building. Famously, we removed three limestone mural friezes from the upper part of the building. Each frieze had a different theme: Commerce, Construction and Sports. The Sports Frieze found a home in New York, while the Commerce Frieze traveled all the way to Moscow, Russia.

Philadelphia Civic Center Construction Limestone Frieze

 

In 2017, the Construction Frieze was purchased by The Alessi Organization. It is now proudly displayed in a new plaza near East 22nd Street and Route 440 in Bayonne. They choose the Construction Freize because it represents the history of the local community.

 

Photo credit: NJ.com

View the full article by NJ.com 

 

Read more about this Salvage Job

Historic Limestone Friezes from Philadelphia Civic Center

Salvaged Antique Door Hardware from Philadelphia Civic Center

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

From the Floor to the Wall: Repurposing Old Floor Joists

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Olde Good Things is known throughout the salvaging, interior design, and preservation communities for our commitment to upcycling, repurposing, and restoring old, neglected, and forgotten items.

We have removed tin ceilings and repurposed them as mirrors and new, colorful ceiling and wall decorations. We’ve salvaged marble, slate, terracotta, and metal from crumbling, demolished, abandoned, or neglected buildings. We’ve given new homes to religious relics, art, statues, mantels, and vintage and antique furniture. We’ve bought and sold at auctions, flea markets, online, and through our 9 locations. A lot is happening with Olde Good Things, but nothing gives us more joy than taking something old and giving it new life.

Rows of reclaimed wood in the aisles of our Scranton PA warehouse

 

Repurposed Old Wood

Did you ever look at the rotting, pitted, splintered hardwood floor of an abandoned building and think to yourself, “these would make an amazing table”? No? Well, we did. We’ve taken old, salvaged floor joists and repurposed them into stunning tables using vintage salvaged wood and other industrial metals or wood pieces for table legs. We’ve taken something some would consider the garbage and made it into something people sit around to enjoy their meals, share important news about their day, play board games, or just sit and contentedly sip tea.

 

Scrap Wood Skins

When we make our tables, the carpentry process requires we plane and cut the wood to piece together the tabletops. What happens to the scrap wood that doesn’t go into the tables? Well, we have another story for you. Those scraps of wood that were cut from the beams that were once floor joists were repurposed into something you have to see to believe.

 

Coffeeshop Showcase

If you’re a Gregular at Gregory’s Coffee in NYC, you’re frequenting a coffee shop that is a buzz for coffee lovers.  Here the customers gaze up at the amazing accent wall…the one covered completely in salvaged, repurposed floor joist wood scraps. Gregory’s Coffee has twelve locations in Manhattan.  Be sure and visit all of them, quite a few have this fascinating wall cover.

 

 

To learn more about our floor joist tables or the wall at Gregory’s Coffee shop, contact us. To see our growing inventory of handmade reclaimed wood tables, click here.  If you are interested in purchasing some of these amazing reclaimed wood beam skins, inquire here.  To take a look at any of our other amazing salvaged, reclaimed, repurposed, or restored items, click here.

Top 10 Instagram Designer Showcases at OGT

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Over the years, we have built long-lasting relationships with interior designers, architects & builders. We helped them with acquiring the ideal vintage furnishings, salvaged materials & custom made furniture. Upon searching our Instagram page, we noticed a lot of tagging coming from interior designers with a wide range of our products showcased. We searched through our recent tags and compiled a list of 10, listed in no specific order below. We would like to applaud them on their talent & hard work. Also please don’t forget to follow your favorites on Instagram.

1. Elizabeth Roberts Architects – www.elizabethroberts.com  Follow them on Instagram

Features: Antique White Marble Mantel with Art Deco Details

 

2. Foreground Design – www.foregrounddesign.com  Follow them on Instagram

Features: Corrugated Fire Resistant Amber Colored Chicken Wire Glass

 

3. Argent Advisors – www.argentapartments.com/chelsea-flats  Follow them on Instagram

Features: Pebbled Chicken Wire Glass

 

4. A Storied Style – www.astoriedstyle.com  Follow them on Instagram

Features: Large Copper & Brass Fox Light

 

5. Assembly Design Studio – www.assemblydesignstudio.com  Follow them on Instagram

Features: Industrial Flooring Table Tops

 

6. Nusla Design – www.nusladesign.com  Follow them on Instagram

Features –Large Holophane Industrial Lights & 1970 Paris Holophane Globe Streetlight Turned Pendant Light

 

7. Lava Interiors – www.LAVAinteriors.com Follow them on Instagram

Features: Salvaged Waldorf Bathroom Art Deco Glass & Towel Bar

 

8. Cottage Gardens – https://linktr.ee/cottagesgardens  Follow them on Instagram

Features: Industrial Steel Top Table

 

9. J.D. Ireland Architect Design – www.jdireland.com Follow them on Instagram

Features: Industrial Flooring Wood Top

 

10. Malibu Interiors – www.malibuinteriors.net  Follow them on Instagram

Features: Hand Painted Glass Window in Iron Frame, view all stained glass online.

 

Comment below your favorite designers and why you chose them!

From Factory to Pantry

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In 2014, Olde Good Things salvaged panes of industrial aqua pebbled chicken wire glass from the Hamilton Manufacturing Co. building in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Our inventive customers at White Magdelena House, a home furnishings store and interior design studio in Hingham, Massachusetts, recently sent us photos of how they incorporated this uniquely colored glass into one of their design projects.

The industrial windows now serve as a barn-style sliding door for a pantry, beautifully demonstrating how our Olde Good Glass can be used to create privacy and partition spaces. Our compliments to the designers and installers!

We are currently sold out of aqua glass, but we do have plenty of other chicken wire glass, as well as other types of vintage reclaimed glass, in stock. Our glass shop also offers additional treatments like mirroring and frosting. Contact us to talk about your next project!

Industrial Window Finds Its Way Home

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We love seeing how our customers put their Olde Good Things to use – especially when that use is creative and unexpected.

This 15-light steel window with pebbled glass was salvaged from a commercial building, and we imagined it finding new life in an industrial space. Customer Kris Rodammer, a creative director and brand design consultant in Boston, had a cozier image in mind – he installed it as an interior window between the kitchen and hallway in his Brookline home.

Interior windows brighten a space, and the pebbled glass in this particular window invites soft, textured light into the hallway while creating a feeling of openness in the kitchen. Six of the lights pivot on a center hinge, allowing control over the flow of sound and air by opening and closing the window. The clean lines are a perfect complement to the classic design of Rodammer’s home.

Feeling inspired? Shop our reclaimed industrial windows and bring home one of your own.

Show Off Your Style in Our Customer Showcase

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We love seeing what our customers do with their Olde Good Things. There isn’t much that makes us happier than seeing your photos of our items “in the wild” – an antique tin mirror hanging in an apartment or café, a chain leg table anchoring a newly renovated kitchen, salvaged stained glass windows bringing gorgeous color into a luxury bathroom.

We also love to share these photos with the world. In the past, we’ve highlighted some beautiful and creative uses of Olde Good Things in the Customer Showcase section of our blog. These articles are promoted across our social media and in our email newsletter, which goes out weekly to over 10,000 subscribers.

Now, we’re inviting you to participate! Whether you’re a homeowner, artist, designer, contractor, landscaper, or just someone who loves antiques, we want to hear from you.

If you’d like to be part of our Customer Showcase series, here’s what we’ll need from you:

  1. High-quality photos of your work – at least 3200 x 2400 px – with attribution information (how would you like us to credit your photos?)
  2. Context – tell us your story! What kind of project are/were you working on? How did you find Olde Good Things? Why did you choose this particular item (or items)?
  3. Permission – please confirm that we have your permission to use your photos and your story on our blog, and let us know any preferences you have for how we identify you (for example, if you only want us to use your first name, or you want us to include a link to your design firm, etc.).

Please email your photos and information to [email protected]. We’ll choose our favorites to feature on our blog in 2019-2020!

Here’s our 3 latest Customer Showcases!

Boston Showcase at the Broadway Restaurant

Texas Showcase at the a’Bouzy Restaurant

Colonial Eatery Brings Repurposed Architectural Elements

 

 

Decor that Shimmers: Decorating with Vintage Reclaimed Glass

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Those who look into the soul of any vintage item will see beyond its form and function and into the life it should have going forward. Vintage glass allows the viewer to look through into other worlds and imagine things that used to be on the other side of the pane. Next time you need something to decorate the interior or exterior space of your house, turn to Olde Good Things for your classic touches of style and history. A hint of the past is always a great way to move into the future. The past represents a groundedness that is not found in modern mass-produced-in-China items that overflow the shelves of décor stores. Impersonal, cold, and often too cheap to be worth passing along to the next generation, these items succumb to the decay of time.

We have the largest selection of vintage chicken wire glass, including corrugated, pebbled, hammered, ribbed, wormy, and clear. We also have many types of obsolete textured glass, antique pattern glass, and wavy window glass. We have developed a unique process of creating the most authentic looking antique distressed mirror on the market. We have a full service shop ready to process your order of vintage glass and mirror.

We have five types of glass available to purchase:

1.  Chicken wire glass

2.  Corrugated glass

3.  Antiqued silvered mirror

4. Exclusive glass and windows

5. Large sheets of stained glass

 

Featured Reclaimed Glass

Rare Large Sheet of Clear Chicken Wire Glass – Limited quantity, pieces this large are rare. Each sheet is 28 square feet. Measuring 81.75 in. H x 49 in. W x 0.25 in. D.

View our customer showcases on our vintage glass website, www.oldegoodglass.com. Request a free sample here.

Top 5 Trending Modern Industrial Handmade Furniture Pieces of 2018

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Inspired by the clean, streamlined aesthetic of urban living, modern industrial furniture has become a popular interior design choice for many. Harking back to the ideals of the great mid-century designers influenced by a post-war world during which efficiency was integral, the modern industrial composition is built-to-last and is uncomplicated in its minimal form. At Olde Good Things, repurposed wood is salvaged and given new life in our modern collection.

Top 5 Trending Furniture Pieces of 2018

1. Four Seat Swing Seat Industrial Factory Table – Available in 4, 6, 8 & 10 seats. This style of base was typically used in a factory setting as an assembly line or cafeteria table in the early 1900s. The top is reclaimed butcher block and the round seats are hard maple. You can customize the type of wood top & stain. The base has been replicated from an original set we salvaged from a factory in 2015.

View online now!

2. Walnut Console Table with Four Steel Drawers – Custom sizes & other wood & stain options are available. Please allow 6-8 weeks for completion. Made to order.

View online now!

3. Handmade Walnut & Black Steel Modern Shelf – Handmade shelving unit by the artisans at Olde Good Things. We built these shelves using sustainable wood materials and angle iron. These units are a tall and narrow size, which are perfect for a small area in a room. Overall size, wood type and shelf count can be customize, please inquire for pricing. Please allow 6-8 weeks for completion. Made to order.

View online now!

4. Four Tier Galvanized Basket Stand – A reclaimed industrial wood top finishes this handy four tier basket storage stand. Great for kitchens, bath or as a side table.

View online now!

5. Reclaimed Farm Table with New York Machine Legs – An Industrial combination of reclaimed pine wood from New York City building beams and replica salvaged industrial machine legs makes a unique dining room table for your workspace. Marine spar varnish and oil finish. The legs can be painted with a faux antique finish in any color. Please allow 6-8 weeks for table completion. Made to order.

View online now!

 

Modern furniture continues to evolve in its definition and as it does, Olde Good Things is honored to partake of its development. Some of our customers have approached us with specific visions to be precisely hand-crafted by our team while others have come in with a vague concept and an open mind. Working with our customers allows for us to get a better feel as the progressive perspective and helps for us to grow and create new and compelling designs.

 

Olde Good Things