Vintage furniture store gives downtown Holland a 'green,' creative alternative

Veteran Holland business owner Susan Langejans has Found-ed a new vintage furniture store in downtown Holland.

Her new store, Found, sells retro and vintage furniture, lamps with custom shades, unique artwork, pillows, decorative accessories and vintage fabrics by the yard. Langejans and her design partner Sue Vanderveen also do custom work on used furniture to give it new life.

"We find stuff all over, anywhere from antique fairs to mission stores," Langejans says. "We find retro and ‘vintagey-type’ furniture."

People also sell unwanted pieces of furniture to the store for refurbishment.

"We do a lot of our (refurbishment) work ourselves," Langejans says, although the pair sends out most custom upholstery jobs to a third-party. “We want to have something unique, but affordable. A lot of people come in and want to re-do pieces of furniture because they don’t want to buy something new."

Located at 203 E. Eighth St., Found took over a recently vacated retail space in Holland’s downtown district. The 2,500-square-foot space needed only some cosmetic changes to complete the store’s retro-chic look.

"It’s got a retro vibe," Langejans says. "We’re definitely into that."

Although Langejans doesn’t promote her store as a "green" business, she says it still attracts customers who are environmentally conscious.

"We’re refurbishing and selling items that might otherwise end up in a landfill or who-knows-where," she says.

Langejans says the community’s response to Found has been positive.

"There were a lot of skeptics when we first opened, ¬because of the economy, but we’re finding that people are still living their lives and still want to be creative," she says.

Source: Susan Langejans, Found; Kara Barney, Downtown Holland Principal Shopping District

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].