Architectural Salvage: Bringing Home History

While you're not apt to find a Grueby vase, you just might find some Grueby tiles.

And while you're probably not going to find a Tiffany lamp, you just might find some Tiffany-inspired stained glass windows.

Architectural salvage.

It's become my most favorite place to shop. Sometimes its little more than an unheated shed, other times it’s a six-story brick warehouse. Most items haven't been cleaned, let alone refinished. Most are simply pushed off the truck and priced, not researched and photographed.

What can you expect to find?

Many times the unexpected, but you'll be sure to discover fireplace mantels or entire surrounds, sometimes in quartersawn oak and sometimes inlaid with Arts & Crafts tiles. You'll find bathroom fixtures that are solid brass, not the cheap, plated stuff in home centers. You'll find fireplace sets, cabinet hardware, cast iron floor registers, door knobs and backplates, ceiling fixtures, and doors, doors, doors.

But my favorite finds are the stained glass windows. I love them because they are so easy to incorporate into any room of the house. I have hung them in bathroom windows for privacy; I have suspended them from vaulted ceilings for excitement; I have built them into new walls for artwork; I have mounted them over a lightbox on a windowless concrete block wall; I have hung them inside a skylight over my bed and watched how the colors change with the motion of the sun.

So the next time you look around your house and think you need some color, some excitement, some texture, put on your jeans, stick a flashlight in your jacket, skip the fancy galleries and go digging through some architectural history.

You won't come home disappointed.

- Bruce Johnson