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People who are renovating old homes often look for architectural salvage and antiques for reuse. Salvage doors, cabinets, and garden statutes are highly sought after items for old homes and farm houses renovation projects.
These items are often unique, discontinued, non-standard size and can’t be found at Home Depot or at any of the traditional home improvement stores.
For old and antique hard to find home furnishings, you’ll have to go shopping architectural salvage.
Some of the salvage decorating projects you can do when reusing architectural elements include renovation of bathrooms, garden decorations, kitchen renovations, interior and exterior designs using distressed items.
The buyer who goes to architectural salvage yards highest priority is locating hard to find items for reuse and restoration.
Finding salvage stores can be challenging depending on where you live. These places are not everywhere and the DIY consumer has to hunt them.
You’ll find one to a few salvage yards in a town or city. Now a days architectural salvage yards are also online. However, sometimes you may have to travel out of town to locate unique reclaimed furnishings.
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Antique architectural salvage products you can find at salvage yards and online stores?
If you’re renovating an old house or want to make a new house look older, everything from small door knobs to large items can be found online.
Here are some of the salvage furnishings highly sought after for renovation DIY projects.
- Architectural salvage doors
- Old vintage doors
- Antique windows
- Distressed wood home furnishings
- Used kitchen cabinets
- Vintage flooring
- Discontinued kitchen cabinets
- Architectural salvage chairs
- Architectural salvage bathtubs
- Architectural salvage flooring
- Architectural salvage lighting
- Architectural salvage garden gates
- Architectural salvage garden ornaments
- Architectural salvage statutes
- Reclaimed glass
- Farm tables
- Antique mirrors
Why people buy salvaged and used architectural furnishings?
The trend to buy reclaimed or salvaged items for home buildings or decorations is not about saving on costs, like thrifting for clothes or furniture.
This choice is more about personal preferences and style. The buyer’s preference is to maintain the vintage or original look of a home using reclaimed items.
To this end, antique architectural buyers see the money spent as an investment in their home.
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These are some of the reasons people prefer to buy salvaged furnishings, instead of newly manufactured ones
Quality – salvaged antique or original pieces from older homes are generally better quality than newly manufactured ones. Using steadier and stronger building materials is desired by some.
Eco-friendly and zero waste alternatives – Salvage and old architecture items are good options for people who are into conscious consumption. These used items will end up in a landfill if not reused in home renovation projects.
Easier to personalize and customize – Salvaged items can be easier to customize and to mix and match for DIY home projects.
Aesthetics preservation – Architecture salvage items help preserve the original beauty and look of a home, instead of using new and more modern furnishings.
Prop Rentals – Renting old reclaimed furnishing is also done in the architectural salvage market. This is done for special events and to decorate sets.
Best Ways to find reclaimed architecture and antique garden items
How to buy salvaged architectural furnishings online
Whether you’re in the market for a salvaged door, a knob or a garden statute, here are some steps you should take to make your shopping experience easier.
- Take good measurements of the items. Measure width and height of the old cabinet, door, window, lighting, tub etc. to make sure the new one will fit.
- Ask about the condition of the salvaged item. Ask the seller for pictures from all sides of the item. Inquiry about additional work you need to make on the item like painting or stripping.
- Ask about shipping costs. Some salvage store offer free shipping on certain items, but shipping costs are usually not included in the selling price.
Where to find reclaimed architectural and antique furnishings
Here are a few salvage and antique stores you may want to consider.
Architectural Accents – A good resource for architectural antiques and reproductions from bygone eras.
Antiques sold at this salvage yard include, antique doors, fireplaces, mirrors, bathtubs, iron gates, garden statues, fountains, planters.
Architectural Accents specializes in 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century pieces form Europe and America.
Olde Good Things – This is a large antique and architecture salvage online store and physical locations. This shop specializes in architectural doors, garden architectural items, iron gates and fencing, farms tables and reclaimed wood tables.
Rubylane – This site sells and buys antiques and vintage glass, porcelain, silver, furnitures. To find architectural pieces you need to search by item names “antique door”, “Garden statutes” etc. These are sold by Rubylane’s partners.
Local salvage and antique architecture stores – Local salvage yards are hard to find, usually traveling out of state is the best option if you can’t find what you’re looking for online. However, you can check your local listings to find architectural salvage.
eBay – Along with all things antiques and vintage, eBay has a number of sellers offering reclaimed, salvage architectural items. You can search eBay by keywords like, “salvage doors”, “garden fountains” etc.
Do your homework and research the seller before you buy on eBay or any other market place.
Etsy – Etsy is also a good market place to find salvage architecture, vintage and antiques for building or decorations. Like with eBay, you’ll have to search by keywords for the items you are shopping for.
Etsy is a good source of reclaimed doors, antique mirrors, lighting and any other reclaimed item you may be hunting for.
Craiglist – Individual sellers list architectural salvage items locally. To find these, just do a search by keyword on the site and contact the seller. A good way to find vintage items on Craiglist is by using the word “used”.
Reclaiming architectural pieces is not a new trend, but it has been on the rise in the last few years. The priority for architectural salvage shoppers is preserving the original look and feel of a home or building.
One of the challenges when shopping for reclaimed home furnishings is actually finding a good fit to replace or to add an item to an older home.
Buyers usually have to do their homework to find salvage yards and antique shops selling sought after items. Luckily, the architectural reclaimed market has grown and you can start your search online for all things salvage.
#recycle #reclaimed
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