Black Dog Salvage – Our Primary Goal in Roanoke VA

Now on to the real goal or purpose of our trip to Roanoke!  “ Salvage Dawgs” is one of Laurie’s favorite shows on HGTV and she’s wanted to tour and/or shop in their store in Roanoke for some time now. 

Combining a visit to Black Dog Salvage with a little 3-day 37^th anniversary celebration road trip was a perfect idea… 

This is the headquarters, workshop, warehouse and retail outlet for Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke Virginia.  Also note the sign to the left of their logo at the top of the building…Memorial Bridge Marketplace.

This photo from the parking area at Black Dog Salvage gives you a better idea about the size of this operation!  It is enormous.  Even the outdoor area around the parking lot and the outside of the building is stacked with recovered or salvaged architectural items from various structures.

Their show on HGTV is called “Salvage Dawgs”.  Viewers watch as Robert and Mike guide their team through the careful recovery of architectural artifacts from homes, hospitals, factories and other historical properties…with the purpose of reclaiming, renewing and redefining these salvaged items for use into the foreseeable future.  “Salvage Dawgs” has been on the air since 2012.  In addition to HGTV, the show is also aired on DYI, and most recently the Great American Country channel.

Now for a few photos in an attempt to convey the scope and variety of the items recovered or salvaged from distressed properties.  How about a few doors?  The selection is enormous!

FYI…Black Dog Salvage was founded in 1999 in an effort to preserve and reuse elements of Southwestern Virginia’s architectural past.  The company was founded by Mike Whiteside and Robert Kulp and the company was named after a big black dog named Molly, the first 'black dog'. 

Then there are a plethora of bathroom fixtures…sinks, toilets, urinals, medicine cabinets and other items.

Trying to match up some antique molding in an effort to refurbish an old home or just to provide eye catching accents in your remodeling project?  Off and on as I wandered through the building, I watched one customer who spent more than a half hour digging through his molding options looking for the right items.

Fireplace mantels are ‘in’ as an accent piece even if you don’t own a fireplace.  There were an impressive number of choices even in this area of the store…

Lighting, lighting globes, glass shades, etc.!  This place is an interior decorator’s gold mine…

I couldn’t include all of the categories of recovered items in this blog… Add garden statues, decorative iron work, sections of stairs, stacks and stacks of windows, boats and boat related items, millstones, old time radiators, religious artifacts, signs, industrial equipment, etc., etc.

Perhaps you need columns for your front porch or as an interior point of interest?

Or you really need that ‘special door’ to highlight your project, headboard or design?

How about some period kitchen or pantry cabinets?  We had some like these in one of our homes when I was growing up.  Note all of the light fixtures hanging from the ceiling in the background…

Would you like to create a piece of furniture and you need that special piece of wood for the project.  Most of these huge wide slabs of wood can’t be duplicated today.  I personally love that dark slab just to the left of the middle of the photo!

The creative staff at Black Dog Salvage also repurposes the items that the crew salvages… In this case, they created a quirky couch from an old claw foot bathtub.  Note the decorative door chimes on the left and all of the garden statuary and decorative items at the right.  And yes…they do sell Black Dog Salvage t-shirts. (Laurie bought one!)

The back portion of the Black Dog Salvage retail operation as well as areas outside the building are packed with salvage materials waiting for designers or DYI homeowners to repurpose them.  Part of the front of the store is loaded with the salvaged items that Black Dog’s team has already imaginatively redesigned/repurposed and has priced for sale. 

This whole area of the store was fun and quirky…as the designers and Laurie’s imagination ran wild.  This is a good representation of the variety available for the shopper!  (Note and remember that iron wheel behind the stool on the left of the photo)

Even I, who doesn’t like to spend money on furnishings we don’t need, came across temptation from time to time.  I have no idea what this leather covered chair was created from but both of us really liked it.  There were a number of them for sale…at only$149.00 each. 

The fact that we have more chairs than we can use already plus the fact that our Hyundai Sonata has a limited cargo capacity…saved us some money as well the effort of trying to decide what to do with way too many chairs!

How about some big pieces of salvaged stained glass for your upcoming remodeling project?  I can’t even imagine what it would cost to have new copies of these windows created!

Laurie was a happy camper!  Here she is in the middle of Black Dog’s creative re-creations and adaptations… There were many, many beautiful tables made from ship lap, doors and slabs of wood…even windows.

Note all of the signs on top of dividers in the background…

Black Dog's Memorial Bridge Marketplace is also home to a large number of vendors who compliment the Black Dog Style.  This particular booth or shop is Phoenix Hardwoods.  As you can see, this vendor creates beautiful pieces of furniture, many approach the status of art. 

Industrial art is featured in at least one of the vendor’s booths as well as by Black Dog’s creative staff.  This amazing metal horse head was created by a truly imaginative artist.  It is extremely detailed!  There was another sculpture similar to this one…and it was of Molly the Black Dog herself.

All around the vendor’s booths, more Black Dog offerings are readily visible.  In the middle of the photo, there is a stairway up to the mezzanine which is loaded with even more salvage items.

  

Many of the vendor’s booths feature top quality antiques, decorative items and artifacts.  This was a clever use of space as these vendors offer items that designers and DYI folks can mix in with the practical and quirky items offered by Black Dog Salvage.

This photo was taken from the aforementioned balcony or mezzanine.  It shows a portion of the extensive vendor shopping area of the Memorial Bridge Marketplace. 

Unfortunately, we lost some photos when downloading our camera and Laurie’s smart phone.  We had photos of the current black dog, Sally, Mike, Grayson, Ty and others from the show as well as specific items that Laurie wanted to record for her sister’s benefit.

Well…the question is this.  Other than Laurie’s t-shirt, what did we purchase?

This was our major purchase…a quirky piece of industrial art that was created by the staff at Black Dog Salvage.  It now adorns our fireplace hearth, and its part of Laurie’s effort to change out and update the look of our family area. 

We had a great time at Black Dog Salvage.  Nice folks, interesting salvage items, beautiful creative pieces…a great combination.  Black Dog Salvage and Memorial Bridge Marketplace are located at 902 13^th Street Southwest in Roanoke Virginia.  Phone: 540-343-6200.  Their website with on-line shopping is available at http://www.blackdogsalvage.com/.

I'm guessing that a trip to Waco Texas and the Magnolia Market can't be too far in the future...

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to see what we’ve been up to!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave