I love a good salvage place! Unfortunately most of my old haunts have disappeared over the years, so I was excited to go and visit a relatively new place. Philadelphia Salvage Company has been around for over a year and I had heard passing mention of it, but one of Mr. S’s coworkers recommended it to him so we decided a visit was in order. We packed up the family on Saturday morning and headed over. It is in West Mount Airy (across from Weavers Way), Philadelphia.
Looking at their website I was concerned that pricing would be on the high side, after all the best places are usually in sketchy neighborhoods with dusty artifacts that have been sitting around for a decade waiting for someone to take them home. Fortunately I thought that their pricing was pretty reasonable, even if their stock wasn’t as extensive as some of the other places I have been to. I was pleased with the quality of what they had too. Here are some of the items that caught my eye.
Aren’t these vintage industrial fixtures nice? They are pretty big and have a nice patina. They require rewiring, but a row of these would look great over a kitchen island. There were a whole pile that were already sold (probably for a restaurant).
This table top is made out of an old bowling alley floor. It looks really great. They were also making a giant dining table out of the same material. One of the cool things is that they offer refinishing in addition to making furniture, which is definitely a bonus depending on what you need something for. Usually you have to lug whatever you buy to a separate place to get it worked on.
I loved their tile collection. We used similar new tile for our kitchen backsplash. The color and crackling is really quite stunning. They had also removed all of the old grout, so these are all set for installation.
I also really liked these windows. The colors of the glass medallions were really amazing. I find a lot of stained glass too fussy for my taste, but these are a nice mix of a little pop of color in a nice geometric pattern.
Of course I was like a kid in a candy store, so walking away empty handed was difficult. We didn’t end up buying anything while we were there, but I have since called and put 2 things on hold. One is for the house and one is for the garden. The garden one I will unveil later on, but we did choose this newel post. It is a dead on match for our newel post (which is a small miracle). I have a bad habit of stockpiling old house parts (i.e. half of our garage loft is filled with extra house parts). So I told myself if I don’t have a place for this I shouldn’t buy it, even if the price is really good (which it was). So after I got home I was thinking about the upstairs hall and how we are going to have to cut the handrail at the bathroom wall, I thought why not use a piece of this to finish it off. Right now the rail dies into a piece of wood, and has always felt a little bit off, and I’m not sure how it was finished originally. I think if take one side of this, it will make a really nice detail. Maybe if I can salvage one of the other sides I will add it down in the basement at the bottom of the stairs. Our contractor is actually going to be over later this week putting a closet in for us (one of those items that didn’t get finished last year).
Does anyone else love salvage stores or have any recommendations?
