5 One-of-a-Kind Furniture Pieces For Your Seattle Home Makeover
Add personality to your home with a couple of stylish vintage, restored or reclaimed pieces
By Chelsea Lin & Nia Martin April 11, 2018
This article originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the April 2018 issue, as part of the “Favorite Home Shops” feature story. Click here to subscribe.
Homestead (Capitol Hill, 501 E Pine St.; 206.588.5519) sells stunning vintage housewares, from rugs to coasters, and furniture; it also rents everything out, which is a great idea for anyone with a penchant for lavish entertaining or who is living in temporary digs). It always stocks a variety of stone objects gathered from collectors around the world, like this stately Art Deco marble coffee table (above; $1,295).
Photographs by Sara Bass (red chair); Del-Teet Furniture (tansu); Kirk Albert Vintage Furnishings (vintage chair, albert); Big Daddy’s Antiques (sign).
Left to right: Before mid-century modern was a thing, it was just mid-century, and those iconic vintage pieces can be found at Chartreuse Modern (Belltown, 93 Denny Way; 206.328.4844). The long-standing family business has been stocking one of the city’s best selections of mid-century chairs (from $99 for a single chair up to $1,999 for a lounge chair) from European and American designers—the assortment is especially bountiful in the spring.
Though many customers shop at Del-Teet Furniture (Bellevue, 10308 NE 10th St.; 425.462.5400) for its classic design pieces and small-scale furnishings, we most love its assortment of Asian antiques including cabinets ($398–$665), such as this timeless Japanese tansu which dates back to about 1900. Made of solid kiri wood, a fast-growing Asian tree similar to pine, it does well with humidity, making these mobile storage units perfect for toiletries in a bathroom.
This unique chair ($950) is made from vintage pipe wrenches, with a rubber conveyor belt for the sling seat. Created by an unknown artist in the 1980s, it’s the kind of masterpiece that can be found at Kirk Albert Vintage Furnishings (Georgetown, 5517 Airport Way S; 206.762.3899). “There’s a wonderful creative expression about this piece. It explores the unique union between postmodern and found assemblage,” Albert says.
When it comes to one-of-a-kind, no one does it with quite as much panache as Big Daddy’s Antiques (SoDo, 1911 First Ave. S; 206.566.6973), where you can find everything from functional, stylish vintage furniture to rare, bizarre decor pieces, such as a gold-toothed crocodile skull or a brass coronet. This antique grocery sign ($495) was one of six that owner Shane Brown picked up on a buying trip to Texas. (Ed. Note: Big Daddy’s has closed their Seattle showroom.)
Follow Us
Can Alaska Kelp Help Washington Crops Beat the Heat?
A Ketchikan company is working with WSU researchers to see whether its kelp-based biostimulant can help grapes and berries withstand environmental stress.
From the floatplane, reddish-brown kelp traces the edges of the small islands between Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island like brushstrokes on the surface of the water. Up close, on a rare 70-degree July day in Alaska, the kelp is glossy and beautiful, though the wind coming off the water makes it nearly impossible to…
PlantCon Is Coming for Seattle’s Windowsills
The nation’s largest gathering for houseplant lovers makes its Pacific Northwest debut this August with 200 booths, hands-on workshops, and a DJ.
My house is full of plants, enough that I’ve lost count. Houseplants have the same suspicious math as tattoos: One is rarely the final number. I propagate cuttings in jars of water, regularly rearrange corners of the house in pursuit of better light, and like to imagine the entire collection is improving the air. That…
Noir Lux Lights Up Fourth Avenue
The Seattle candle brand’s new two-level pop-up brings workshops and community gatherings downtown through September.
It’s often said that good things come in threes, and for Colina Bruce, founder of the lifestyle and home fragrance brand Noir Lux, that’s certainly proving true. With a flagship shop in Belltown and an outpost in Ballard, Bruce is rounding out a Noir Lux trio with the opening of the Noir Lux Collective on…
Better Together: This Take on Co-Housing Emphasizes Quality and Community
The Seattle project presents an out-of-the-box model, where investors are also residents, and the design focuses on longevity and tenant retention—not profit.
Growing up in rural Detroit, Chad Dale spent many after-school and weekend hours playing with neighborhood kids in an open lot near his house. It’s an experience he always hoped his children would have someday, but by the time he became a father in Seattle, land was at a premium: either already developed or prohibitively…