Second Chances
By John ClausenPhoto by Rimas Zailskas
Ever wonder what happens to that old chair or door or park bench somebody leaves on the side of the road or behind the barn?
Sure, most of them simply rot into the landscape or become rodent condos…but the lucky few may catch the eye of Gail LaMuraglia. If that’s the case, there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to end up as art objects or some useful, if quirky household items.
Gail and her husband Tom live on the campus of Warren Wilson College where Tom is the head of the college’s landscaping department. They share an enthusiasm — and a talent — for giving old things a second chance.
Take, for example, the old ice-box-turned-liquor-cabinet in their dining room. Or check out the old-fashioned set of mail boxes they liberated from an old post office to house their collection of espresso cups. It’s right there on that chopped up old table top…the one that used to be a hog-butchering table. Then there’s the chicken incubator that they made over into a coffee table. And let’s not forget the old locker room bench at the end of their bed or the artfully hung park bench armrests that frame a collection of beautiful ceramic balls made by local artist Robin Van Valkenburgh. And don’t overlook the old screen door that became a stylish bedroom mirror.
One of their favorite found objects, however, is an old “Art Linkletter” chair. For the uninitiated, the Art Linkletter chair is a half-moon-shaped easy chair that adjusts from a nearly bolt-upright position to a fully reclined arrangement that’s a little like sitting in giant watermelon rind. Very comfortable, says Gail.
“We had one before,” she explains. “It was Tom’s favorite thing in the whole house.”
Unfortunately, the house to which she refers was lost in a fire some years ago. The chair was burned to the point where even Gail couldn’t repair it. “Everybody at Tom’s office knew that he loved that chair,” she recalls. “So one day somebody called and said, ‘Hey, we saw your chair on the side of the road.’”
Gail and Tom immediately went to the roadside in question and snatched up the chair, which, Gail says, was covered in a “really nasty pink vinyl.” Once they got their hands on the chair, of course, it received a new and infinitely more tasteful covering. It now occupies a cozy corner of the couple’s bedroom.
Gail has what has to be the perfect job for someone with her particular decorating proclivities. She’s the manager of The Screen Door, a vast warehouse of eccentric merchandise of about 150 dealers in antiques and…well, “found objects.”
Out front, you’ll find a pile of rusting treasures that only somebody with true imagination could love…old lawn furniture, for example, just like that stuff you hauled away last summer. Old neon signs. Tangled steel and aluminum in a variety of configurations. The rather dubious first impression gives way to a sort of grudging admission that some of the old stuff could look pretty cool if it were fixed up…and that is the mission and the passion of Gail LaMuraglia: to give new life and purpose to old things. It’s both her life and her livelihood.
It’s not something just anyone could do. It takes a certain practiced eye to recognize the difference between useless junk and a potential work of art. The elegant bedroom mirror, for example, was nothing but an old screen door when Gail first saw it at work. “I just liked the style and the design,” she explains. “I thought it would be fun to use that rectangle in the center. I’m really into making things. That’s my favorite thing. Figuring out where to put it, though, that was tough…especially with my husband following me around. But he’s a good sport. I guess he’s used to it. I’m always dragging something home.”
© 2007 Planet Zeus Media, LLC
