DesignSTL

THIS ISSUE IS dedicated to readers who find joy and comfort in the pursuit of vintage and antiques, who pore over weekly estate sale listings and plan their Saturday mornings so that they’re sure to get the first look. This month’s features are also written with beginners and the curious in mind. Starting on page 48, you’ll find stories by writers who set out to learn how to work secondhand wares into a room, plus tips on how to use old things in fresh new ways. We also interviewed four local dealers. We wanted to know what drives them in their careers, how they got their starts, and-with access to so many pretty things—what inspires them the most. Look no further than Carol and Pat Schuchard for brilliant ideas about…

BRIDGETTE FYVIE DOESN’T just walk into a room. She sweeps in with the panache of a 1950s movie star: full skirts, scarlet-painted lips, hair coiffed into face-framing waves. In the words of Nat King Cole, she’s unforgettable. Her fashion sense is just half the story. Fyvie, 47, is also a collector of vintage décor—Midcentury furniture and 1940s kitsch paintings—that she works into the interiors of her Holly Hills home. Fyvie is a real estate agent and owner of Shop Hullabaloo, on Etsy, where vintage jewelry aficionados and costume designers for major movies and television shows discover time-worn treasures for their projects. We talked to Fyvie about her style icons and the appeal of unique pieces that help her stand out in a crowd. -P.E. HOW DID YOU DEVELOP YOUR INTERESTS…

LIVING WITH DESIGN DESIGN COMMUNITY AT 24, REBECCA VAN BERGEN, a native of St. Louis and a graduate student at Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work, founded Nest. Sixteen years later, the nonprofit with a global reach aims to help entrepreneurs working in the creative realm—mostly women—grow their businesses and connect them with top brands and retailers such as Target, Patagonia, West Elm, and Madewell. According to van Bergen, the ripple effects of such partnerships “impact families and communities and boosts cultural preservation.” So, when it was time to settle her family into their new home—a custom-built house in the heart of Kirkwood—Rebecca wanted it to be a direct reflection of her professional work, which puts the spotlight on artisans and small-batch makers in the U.S. (including St. Louis) and 120…

1 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL THRIFT STORES Nine locations svdpstlouis.org The organization operates eight traditional thrift stores that specialize in gently used goods. St. Vincent also carries a selection of new items provided by corporate donors, as well as mattresses made from recycled metal springs and all-new fabrics. The ninth location—Cool Valley Thrift Outlet, in North County—sells clothing, housewares, and glassware by the pound. KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: “Cool Valley is our outlet,” says Mary Gehrig, assistant director of stores. “We have 15 to 20 people in line before opening every day.” 2 THE LITTLE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER 4474 Castleman missouribotanicalgarden.org/shopping-and-dining This resale shop, which opened in 2005, supports the mission of the Missouri Botanical Garden and accepts a range of donated furniture, glassware, and decorative items. Recent finds…

REAL ESTATE, CONTRACTORS, ARCHITECTS PROPERTY COUNTRY HOUSE TIM GLASTETTER’S “RIVER HOUSE” lies just south of Union, in Franklin County, off a pocked gravel road. It’s set in some woods and perched above the Bourbeuse River, on a 9-acre parcel that Glastetter bought a decade and a half ago, when it was wildly overgrown; he wound up finding no fewer than 24 toilets, 100 tractor tires, countless feral chickens, a Virgin Mary statue (enshrined in an upended bathtub), three mobile homes, and other odd objects that he believes may’ve been part of an informal junkyard/flea market run by the previous owner. The property also held seven small bungalows, possibly the remnants of a Boy Scout camp. (He’s in the process of refurbishing some.) But what intrigued Glastetter most was the main house—or, more…

IMAGINE PLAYING WITH Lincoln Logs, but instead of stacking twee 4-inch wood pieces, you’re working with a set of massive beams and columns of cross-laminated timber from Canada. Layers of wood are laid and glued perpendicular to the one beneath it, resulting in a material stronger than a single layer of timber. You obsess over the locations of the holes you’ll need for electric and plumbing, because they’ll need to be drilled before the kit is loaded on a train and shipped to you. When you receive your set, each piece of wood is numbered so you know where it goes. Someone hands you a blueprint and a bunch of bolts. A crane operator rolls up. You have six weeks to erect your building. This scenario might sound like a…