Furnishing your home with antiques doesn’t have to be expensive — not if you’re willing to do a little restoration work. Take it from Jordan Slocum and Barry Bordelon, better known as the Brownstone Boys.
“If you get a piece someone has already spent a lot of time and effort restoring, it’s going to be expensive,” said Mr. Bordelon, 43. “But there are many pieces out there that need a lot of love, and to be restored, that you can get for a lot less. We do that a lot.”
The Brownstone Boys — Jordan Slocum, left, and Barry Bordelon — restore furniture they find in vintage shops, architectural salvage yards and among piles of trash on the sidewalk.Credit…Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
The Brooklyn-based designers — whose new book, “For the Love of Renovating,” is out next month — are always on the hunt: in vintage shops along Atlantic Avenue, in architectural salvage yards, even among piles of trash on the sidewalk.
“We’re fortunate to live in New York, where stooping is a thing,” Mr. Slocum, 41, said.
Recently, they rescued a wood side chair with a ruined seat and gloppy paint from the curb. To restore it, they employed many of the same techniques they use on woodwork in historic brownstones.
