retro – Page 2 – Erik G. Warner

We’re Bona Fide!!! (with apologies to the Coen brothers)

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Erik W in mid century, mid-century furniture, minnesota, retro, vintage

The new home of Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage - August 2015 — The new home of Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage – August 2015

Good news! Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage has a new home (which is why we now feel bona fide) in Little Falls, MN.

It’s been a long time coming. We lost the shop space we were renting last November. Erik searched for other rental possibilities but couldn’t find anything appropriate. As winter turned to spring, he started looking for buildings to purchase. This particular one was not yet for sale, but Erik contacted the owners and they said they had been intending to list it. We agreed on a purchase price and had a closing date set in May.

Alas! The May date was fouled up by some title issues that took time to work through. We officially closed on the building last Monday. Woohoo!

Appropriately enough, our “new” shop is a mid-century building, having been constructed in the 1960s. Note the lovely turquoise siding. Like most of the furniture we pick to restore, this building needs a lot of TLC, which we will give it as we can afford to make improvements. (For those interested in the history of the building, it originally served to house garbage trucks and was most recently used for vehicle storage.)

We’ve started on renovations, with Erik and our son Sebastian building shelves to store furniture and spending the entire past week moving accumulated inventory into the space.

New shelving at EGW Decorative Salvage holding chair inventory, August 2015.

Purchasing this shop would not have been possible without the help of Erik’s parents, who provided some capital toward the project, and our credit union, which had faith in our vision. The previous owners, Lynn and Keith, allowed us to use the shop through the summer and paint a room for our photo studio. Thanks to everyone who has assisted us in growing our business.

Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage on Chairish

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Erik W in danish modern, mid century, mid-century furniture, minnesota, modern, retro, vintage

At Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage we are continually looking for new avenues through which to offer our vintage mid-century and modern items. While we’ve been using Etsy for some time to offer small items, we did not have an online method for sales that we could manage that dealt with the shipping of large items, like our furniture. And then we stumbled upon Chairish.

Chairish started a number of years ago as a way individuals could move higher-end used furniture without running it through Craigslist. Chairish curates the items its sells, so a certainly quality level has to be met. Over the years, Chairish has shifted focus and brought on professional dealers in housewares and furniture along with individuals.

The great thing about Chairish is that it helps arrange shipping of large items for sellers. Buyers pay for white-glove service, which means that the shippers come in and wrap the item being purchased and transport it carefully to its delivery location. For a small business like ours, this is a huge help, so we’ve signed on with Chairish, in addition to our other sales avenues.

Check out the items we currently have available on Chairish.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us directly at warner (dot) erikg (at) gmail (dot) com.

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Update (December 13, 2015) – After giving Chairish a whirl, we have found it isn’t the venue for us, so if you click the Chairish link, you’re not likely to find anything there. Please do check our Etsy Shop, stop in at MidModMen+friends in St. Paul, MN, or contact us directly.

Mid-Century Vibe Becomes Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Erik W in antiques, etsy, mid century, minnesota, modern, retro, vintage

Fans of Mid-Century Vibe, we’ve got news. We’re changing our name from Mid-Century Vibe to Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage.

How did we get to this point?

At the end of November 2014, we lost our workshop space. We took the occasion to re-examine our business, the mid-century market, and Erik’s penchant for picking. We realized that we wanted to expand beyond mid-century modern items. Our business name was not going to allow us to do that, so we decided to rebrand.

After much thought, we decided to use Erik’s name for the business, allowing him the ability to pick whatever is interesting while out on the road. We are still HUGE fans of mid-century and modern furniture and decorative items, so they will always remain a big part of what we offer.

However, Erik describes his aesthetic as “modern with a punk rock attitude,” meaning if you want to throw an early 1900s ornate table into a room filled with modern furniture, go for it! If you want to use a fabulous hospital gurney as a chaise lounge, do it! Don’t let some outside “authority” tell you what you can and can’t do with your personal space in the interest of “pure” modernism. Our design philosophy is that if you want to mix modernism with Victorian, or industrial with Deco, or any other sort of mash-up, you should do so.

If you’re looking for a blended style, Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage can help you. If you’re looking for a specific piece, let us know. We’ll try to find it.

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A big part of our rebranding has been switching over account names, including this website, Gmail, and Twitter.

Our web address is now: erikgwarner.com

Gmail: warner.erikg@gmail.com

Twitter: @ErikGWarner

Items from Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage are available for sale through our website Shop. (See the sidebar menu.) When you’re ready to purchase, you’ll be taken to our Square Marketplace page to complete the sale. (You can also shop directly from our Square Marketplace page if you prefer.)

Our Mid-Century Vibe Etsy page will remain live for a couple more months and then will be shut down. Feel free to check items out there in the meantime.

The last big social media account we have to switch over is Facebook, which we’ll be doing soon. Turns out we have to request a name change from Facebook, but we didn’t want to give everyone a big shock by changing it without an announcement.

As we go through this transition, we’ll be acquiring new and fascinating inventory to add to our online shop. We’ll keep you posted as new items become available.

Thanks for your support.