Upcycled antique shop fills final space in old Rolison Building
BRIGHTON — A new store in downtown Brighton's renovated Rolison Building started when diehard antique collector and longtime Northville shop owner Barb Teubert looked to expand.
A Gathered Collection is expected to open Thursday, Nov. 16, at 113 W. Main St. in the former hardware store building. The shop sells antiques, upcycled and repurposed furnishings, and décor, custom signs and more.
It fills the third storefront on the former Rolison Hardware's ground floor.
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Teubert and her husband, Doug, are longtime owners of The Barn in Northville.
She said the Brighton shop is a "sister store" with a different name. She was attracted to Brighton because her grandson, his wife, and her great-granddaughters live there.
Her son, Michael Vernasco, is also a big part of her businesses. Vernasco takes antiques and vintage items and repurposes them into something new, like taking a toboggan sled and making a shelf, or creating a table out of an old sewing machine base. He also makes cornhole sets.
Right now, for example, there's a table made out of old steel grates from the Mackinac Bridge for sale at the Brighton shop.
Teubert fell in love with antiquing decades ago, when she and her husband lived in Copper Country in the U.P. Her first shop in Northville, The Country Basketmaker, opened in 1988.
"I used to make baskets and do shows and go on the road, so I made a space to sell my baskets and other things," she said.
She opened her first antique store, The Pickety Patch, later. Then, about 25 years ago, the couple took over The Barn, called The Barn Antiques at the time.
Over the decades, people's tastes have changed.
"Twenty-five years ago, antiques were pretty popular. Today, not so much. It depends on who your audience is, what they want," Teubert said. "My clientele changed, and that's when we brought in the sign making, cornholes."
She said industrial items, ironstone ceramics and dishware are popular with today's shoppers.
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She said one of the oldest antiques in the Brighton shop is a shelf from a hotel with cubbies for keys and mail, likely from the late 1800s.
Mike and Whitney McCowen, the new owners of the Rolison Building, also have two apartments under construction upstairs. Intimate apparel shop Hush moved from a different storefront in downtown Brighton, and Dawn Angelic Photography has a studio in the back.
— Contact reporter Jennifer Eberbach at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Upcycled antique shop fills final space in old Rolison Building
