Cottage Furniture in a Brooklyn Souk

IN MY QUEST for a storage solution for the boxes of files and photos presently stacked in the bedroom of my new Brooklyn apartment, I found FIND, a sprawling home-furnishings warehouse hiding in plain sight across from the Lowe’s parking lot in Gowanus. (They’ve been open since ’09, but I was out of town for a year-and-a-half, so it’s new to me.)

The place has an eclectic, even schizophrenic quality, stuffed as it is with wares from every corner of the world. The bulk of it is similar to what you might find at Bloomingdale’s: traditional overstuffed sofas upholstered in beige linen, farmhouse tables, wood armoires. That’s not the part that interested me.

I was drawn to a narrow strip of stuff they’re phasing out, apparently, leftovers from a big sale they had a couple of weekends ago: vintage glass-door cabinets with multi-tone paint jobs, surrounded by brass lamps, poufs, and mirrors straight out of a Moroccan bazaar.

The cabinets look like they’ve been artfully distressed (perhaps even naturally distressed in some cases) and have a cottage-y look, very like rustic American painted furniture of the 1930s and earlier. Except they’re made of teak, mostly, and were imported, I’m told, from India.

Some of them have fanciful moldings. One of the more massive cabinets — 42″ wide and 2 feet deep — is on chunky wooden wheels, inset into the frame.

The smaller pieces — medicine-chest size — are priced around $150; humongous ones range from $400 to $900, with local delivery thrown in. Alas, nothing I saw was quite right, functionally. I have a 6-1/2-foot-wide alcove I hope to fill with one large storage piece, and the cabinets I liked at FIND tend to the tall and narrow. Or else they had glass panes, and the idea is to have hidden storage.

Still, when this bargain-hunting veteran of the interior design/home furnishings scene sees something as unusual as these Indian imports, she takes notice.

FIND is at 59 9th Street, Brooklyn 11215; 718/369-2705.

Debut of the Albemarle Reno Blog

EVERY SO OFTEN, a truly splendiferous house comes to market, like this turreted 15-room, 5,200-square-foot mansion in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park South Historic District. The AIA Guide to New York City calls the 1905 building by architect John J. Petit “Shingle Style with a Colonial Revival, Tuscan-colonnaded porch” — altogether fitting for a neighborhood that is itself an eclectic mix of styles popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

First listed in September 2007 for $2,595,000, it sold last month for $1.6M (go here for more about the house’s price history).

The new owners, Brooklyn residents since 1992, intend not only to bring the house back to its original state, but to blog about the renovation on Brownstoner.com as they go. The first post appeared last Friday.

They have their work cut out for them. The house is a Victorian extravanganza, laden with woodwork, chandeliers, stained glass, a wraparound porch, grand staircase, an extraordinary oval dining room, and nooks and crannies galore.

But the kitchen had been banished to a back hall during the house’s years as a doctor’s home and office (the spectacular dining room was used as a waiting room). There’s vinyl siding, miles of excess wiring, cracked plaster, and lots more to do and un-do.

To get a sense of the project ahead, go to the Albemarle Reno Blog and follow the transformation.

Material Objects in Jamesport

THE NORTH FORK HAS A BRAND NEW HOME FURNISHINGS STORE and it’s a winner. Material Objects in Jamesport opened Labor Day weekend in a converted 1870 farmhouse, plus a newly constructed barn, above, after several years in the making.

The look is predominantly rustic and trendily distressed. Items both antique and new are sourced from South America, Europe, and the Far East. High-end upholstered pieces, oversized dining tables and chandeliers, wire work and weather vanes, bee skeps and signage from local farms, picket fence gates hung as wall decoration, cupboards and mirrors — in short, all one needs to furnish a house in the country.

Sherwood House Vineyards of Mattituck is set to open a tasting room as part of the same compound later this fall.

Material Objects is at 1291 Main Road in Jamesport, a few miles east of Riverhead. It’s open 7 days from 10-6. No website yet; phone 917 687 0063.