Posts by Trisha Anderson
Rejuvenation salvage buyer Trisha Anderson reports on Serving Up Style, an annual Portland design event.
On October 6, Portland hosted Serving Up Style, an annual event to benefit Molly’s Fund Fighting Lupus.
Each year, prominent design teams are invited to create fantastic, stunning, and whimsical dining environments for a four-day showcase during the Portland Fall Home & Garden Show. Serving Up Style culminates with a fundraiser gala, auction, and awards ceremony. The rules are simple: each design group gets a 12′ x 16′ space with a concrete floor and away you go!
Rejuvenation’s Moravian Star Shades hang above the salvage table,
and a pair of Blenko glass lamps adorn the buffet
This was Rejuvenation’s third year participating in the event, and the second year my design firm, Abode Design, partnered with Rejuvenation to create a space. The inspiration for this year’s design came the instant I saw Rejuvenation’s new Blenko glass lamps (available in early November). The colors, the shades, and their sheer scale got my creative juices flowing.
The room, entitled “Boho Artistry,” was created around the idea of curated space – how one expresses their personal history through the interior design of their home. The back story came together quickly: Our space would represent a 1960s artist loft, the home of a traveler and eclectic collector.
A paint-covered salvage table, vintage “origami” chairs, layered rugs from Kush Handmade Rugs, a striking salvage Moroccan chandelier, and pendants dressed in Rejuvenation’s Moravian Star Shades all came together in a room that told the artist’s story. Best of all, Pacific Northwest artist Jennifer Ament installed her amazing handmade prints on the wall. They provided the final authentic brush stroke!
We were so glad to be able to help Molly’s Fund by participating in this event. Houzz readers were pretty excited, too: Boho Artistry been added to nearly 900 ideabooks!
We recently installed this amazing neon sign above the Salvage desk at our Grand Avenue store in Portland.
This mid-century piece, manufactured by the Oregon Sign and Neon Corp., came from a bar in southwest Portland. We had Security Signs — a local family-owned company — restore it. They used the old-school argon tubing with its distinctive blue glow.
Since we put it up, customers have been bellying up to the Salvage “bar” asking for gin and tonics! Which got us to thinking about our favorite summer cocktails…Here’s our list:
Nigel: Reposada tequila, neat with lime
Justin: Manhattan
Josh: Pina Colada
Charles: Greyhound
Trisha: Sangria
How about you?
No secret here: We LOVE industrial salvage. Restoring usefulness and beauty to something destined for the landfill just feels right. So we’ve been making one-of-a-kind creations out of all the cool pieces and parts we get can our little salvage paws on.
How do you fit one of these unique pieces into your home? And make sure your space showcases the table instead of looking the factory it came from? The key is mixing materials and elements. Hard with soft, cold with warm, patterned with plain. Allow our Portland store to demonstrate…
In this vignette, we placed a reclaimed industrial table on a warm and woolly rug that has an oversized brown and sage floral design. And since the table has a pedestal base with three feet, we thought: Why not go with three quilted chairs and a gorgeous wood and brass tripod floor light to play up the triplets angle?
Then we added in some glimmering glass elements and antlers for quirk.
As you can see, the table looks right at home, thanks to the interplay of delicate sparkle (on the glass), large-scale pattern (on the rug), and natural texture (on the chairs). Come in to the store to see what else we’ve reclaimed lately, and get ready to try this at home.
Here in the Salvage Department we find ourselves continually amazed at the beauty of old industrial pieces. It breaks our hearts to think of these giants of the industrial world just sitting around, unused and unloved. So we don’t let them — we give them a second life by turning them into one-of-a-kind furniture pieces: kitchen islands; console, cocktail, and side tables; desks; and dining tables.
We start with the bases. First we choose a heavy-duty vintage industrial piece from our collection of dozens. With options like optician’s machines, I-beam trestles, and stitching machines from a textile factory available to us, this is a really cool part of the process. Once we have a base that feels just right, we begin scouring our selection of reclaimed wood slabs and vintage glass panels to find a top with the right proportions, look, and feel to match the base. For pieces made with reclaimed wood we cut the slab to fit the base, sand it until it’s silky smooth, and attach it to the base with heavy-duty screws. They’re sturdy and wobble-free, and they make us really happy. Customers seem to love them, too, and can be often found crouching down to get a better look at the mechanical bases or running their hands over their smooth, touchable tops. Best of all, these titans of an earlier industrial age get a chance to serve a purpose once again.
For our creations we have found a new use for an I-beam trestle,
cut apart and re-used a bandsaw,
topped a shoe stitcher,
and transformed a knurling* machine.
But that’s only the beginning. We have so many more components to put together, from streetlights and work benches for bases…
…to end-cut maple, black walnut, elm, Doug fir, live-edge slabs, and glass for tops.
These don’t tend to hang around the store for long. To check availability or to order, call customer service at 888.401.1900. For questions or to find out what’s in the works, call the Portland store at 503.238.1900, and ask to speak with someone in the salvage department.
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*Knurling, for those of you who are interested, refers to the diamond pattern often seen on metal tools, which allows you to get a better grip.
I have been having a ball decorating for the holidays and I challenged myself to come up with some ideas for a salvage Christmas.
Vintage glass balls are stunning – their colors are subtle – the patina speaks of Christmas past. And we have been getting a lot of battery jars in lately. Battery jars are simply a straight sided round or square glass jar which was used to house a conductive solution of either acid or copper sulfate. I love the industrial glass and bright pops of color.
Name tags and place settings get a bit of vintage charm when attached to a beautiful old skeleton key.
Take it outside! I strung together large crystal cabinet knobs and festooned our industrial tree.
The tree was made by prisoners in the 1950′s. Quite a craft project! The strings twist in the wind and sparkle in the sun.
We are hoping we will get freezing rain – how amazing would that look?
Happy holidays!
