Engineer finds new life in old decor

Engineer turned home decorator Brad Elliot began rescuing and reviving iconic pieces of the past as a way to recapture the nostalgia of his childhood while utilizing his creative side to build his own business.

Owner and artist of Mid Century Modern Home, a new furniture store in Whitefish, Elliott, 51, fills his shop with refurbished home items from the 1930s through the 1970s that are ready for a second life.

“Everything runs in cycles,” Elliott said. “Everything that’s old is new again at some point.”

Growing up in his family’s “modern” home store in the ’70s, Elliott was immersed in white leather and funky patterns from an early age.

Back in the day of chrome kitchenettes, Elliott felt design reached its peak in terms of style and quality.

“You can’t get anything of quality anymore,” Elliott said. “You can get new things that mimic. All new furniture now, if you go look, most of it pulls from all the mid-century designers’ lines.”

Unlike some of the pieces available in stores today, the couch his grandmother bought from her husband’s store when Elliot was a child has survived several decades, multiple moves, his three sons and continues to serve its purpose in the family’s cabin today.

The biggest appeal of the era of decor Elliott chose, he said, is nostalgia.

He recalled sitting around his grandparents’ round, 1950s-style kitchen table, playing gin and drinking Old-Fashioned cocktails with his family. When he recently came across that exact same model of table, he said he had to buy it to give to his mother.

The jump from 60-hour weeks managing and engineering for major companies like Boeing and HP, to opening a refurbished furniture business, Elliott said, came with both perks and challenges.

“I think a lot of people feel like it would be easy to start grabbing things and flipping them,” Elliott said. “You kind of have to know what you’re looking for and what you can save and what you can’t.”

His searches for new items take him through estate sales, rummage sales, thrift stores and more, but they also require industry connections who can bring in rare and valuable items.

A lot of research goes into understanding what certain items are, where they come from, their value and whether they’re worth saving.

“It’s more a style, but what I would pick up and put in here and call mid-century is probably anywhere from the ’30s all the way up to the late ’70s,” he said.

Pieces that old, however, often require hours of work to restore or repurpose, from reupholstering to patching to welding and more.

“A lot of times you’ll get a piece and you think it’s going to be quick and easy, and then it’s eight hours and some frustration,” he said.

Still, he said, his fascination and curiosity about an object he stumbles upon will sometimes get the better of him.

“A lot of things I just know what they are anyways when I see them, but whenever I see something that I don’t really know, I go ‘that’s interesting,’” he said. “I may not know what it is, but I know it’s going with me.”

Aside from giving an old couch new cushions or a wood table a new finish, Elliott also repurposes items to make an all-new piece, or “Elliott original.”

On the walls of his shop are a pair of shelves made from old and well-used snowmobile runners. In the corner is a bar crafted from the hood of a rusty tractor. Vintage baby-blue skis stand against one wall to form a bookshelf.

“There are always pieces that are hard to get rid of,” Elliott said, “but I keep so little because I could keep it all.”

Self-taught in the craft of furniture restoration, Elliott began his second career about six years ago.

“I’m a good example of a whole new life after 40-something,” he said.

Since then, he’s grown his brand online and sold to clients around the country before moving his business from Boise, Idaho, to Whitefish six months ago.

Having to fill a showroom from scratch brought several locally salvaged items through the door, making for an eclectic collection of bright colors, old wood, rusted metal and bold shapes.

“I’m always looking for things that most people aren’t going to have in their home, most people haven’t seen,” Elliott said. “To take a piece and bring it back to life and have it go through three more generations probably, that’s just so gratifying.”

His hope for the items he “rescues, restores and re-homes,” he said, is for the stories behind the dents and dings to continue.

“Those are fun marks. I call them beauty marks. Most pieces have them,” Elliott said. “Somebody’s loved that thing for an awful long time.”

“Hopefully it’ll be so unique and so cool … that it’ll probably be passed down and be in that family for a long time,” he added.

Mid Century Modern Home,at 6050 U.S. 93 S. in Whitefish, opened its doors last week and is usually open from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays and from 12 to 4 p.m. weekends.

Certain times and dates are open by appointment only.

For more information call 406-885-2858.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.