Reduce, Reuse, and UPCYCLE!

As many of you know, Ryan and I recently bought our first home in Tampa. Most of my time off from work this summer has been meeting with workers, packing, moving, and unpacking. Now that we have had time to settle in a bit, we are on the hunt for a few unique accent pieces of furniture to make this place our own. Yesterday, I was out on my weekly “errand run”, when I spotted Schiller’s Architectural and Design Salvage. Located on Cypress right near Vintage Lofts (North of Kennedy), this place looks like a hodge podge when you see it from the road. There are piles and piles of  “junk” collected from owners, Larry and Charlie Schiller. They utilize space both indoors and outdoors, and had I had more time in my day, I would have stayed longer than the 30 minutes I spent perusing the grounds. When I parked my car, I was welcomed by the sight of a vintage red telephone booth. Still in great condition, I thought how cool it would be to bring new life to it. Any store owners out there looking for a unique dressing room? That’d be cool…

Walking around the outside entrance, I came across all different things. There were stacks of old letters used to name business that have been collected. The letters come in different sizes and colors, and as you can see, people play around with them to make the words they are looking to find. There are piles of reclaimed wood from all types of buildings and structures and the other major piece that sticks out in my memory was the GINORMOUS gondola/boat they had stationed out front.

Going inside of the industrial warehouse, I walked into a flea market of sorts. This place was a gold mine for people who love repurposing and reworking old pieces to make them something new. If you are someone who enjoys watching shows like “Picker Sisters” or “American Pickers”, this is the place for YOU! They have old, reclaimed doors and windows, toilets, sinks, furniture and lighting. Besides that, they have furniture accessories and trinkets of all sorts. I am telling you now, I couldn’t possibly list the endless amount of things they had going on inside. I was so overwhelmed by the magnitude of the collection, that my first “lap” around the joint was a blur. My brain was on total overload as I walked aimlessly through the unique and in many cases “historic” pieces the owners have collected over the years.

After making it through one time, I realized I needed a game plan. Although I wasn’t planning on purchasing anything without having Ryan there to consult, I knew we were on the hunt for a few things for our place and maybe this would be just what we were looking for. I took as many pictures as my phone would allow (which was NOT many btw) because a lot of the things I saw were items I hope Ryan and I can repurpose into something new and I wanted him to be able to see exactly what I found. The next twenty minutes or so was dedicated to carefully investigating the different sections of the design studio.

Once finished, I introduced myself to Lisa, the woman who was running the store while owners Larry and Charlie were on vacation. I explained to Lisa that we own a big letter “S” that we found during a renovation to a hotel in Orlando, and we were looking to either sell or trade it. With all of the AMAZING items I came across in their warehouse, I am pretty confident we can make some sort of deal! If you are one who loves HGTV and design type shows or you just want something fun and FREE to do in Tampa on a random Saturday, you MUST check out Schiller’s Salvage! Oh and P.S. they love their social media and after your 3rd Check-In on Foursquare, you receive 15% off of your purchase!  So head on in and check out what they have! And tell them NHIE sent you!

Check them out here on Facebook: Schiller’s Salvage

-Nicholas