Treasure In Town

The saying goes, "ask the locals" if you want to find the good places in town. This could be in regards to food, shopping or in my case, recycled artifacts. I have lived in Eau Claire for over 5 years now and I never heard of Dell's Architectural Antiques. That is until one of my readers who use to live here sent me an email recommending I check it out (Thanks Jess!)

From the outside, it looked like nothing more than an aging old barn with a few artifacts from the past scattered around. Little did I know, those few relics were only hinting to many more amazing treasures waiting within.

Dell's is just one of the many architectural salvage warehouses that are found around the country. Places like these take the old bones, as I would like to call them, from houses, barns, churches and buildings that have seen better days and give their customers opportunity to give them a new purpose. 

It's not only recycled hardwood flooring and windows that you can find here.

There's the unusual artifact or two as well. 

One item on my project list involves wood corbels. And I was very happy to see they had plenty of them!

I would love to see this recycled tin, most likely used as ceiling tile, repurposed as a  bathroom or kitchen backsplash.

They had lots of diverse lighting to choose from as well.

Some of my favorites were these industrial shades.

As much I as I refinish furniture, finding unique hardware can sometimes be a bit tricky. Well not anymore!

Check out all of these different options.

Glass.

Wood.

Even lucite!

And not just knobs, but feet.

And all the odds and ends you could imagine.

Needless to say, we were there for over a good hour just in awe of all the possibilities.

We were inspired to try adding a few items in our own home in the future.

And I definitely recommend checking with your locals for any hidden gems among your city. I'm sure I will be adding Dell's to my regular thrift store stops.