Before it came to be known as ‘Joe’s Fine Antiques and Furniture Design’, the trendy little shop on the south side of town was known of as ‘Joe’s Junk and Antique Shop’. Everything changed for the little shop after a local paper ran a story on it is as part of series designed to highlight the town’s quaint small businesses. Once word got out about the remarkable talents of Gustave, the shop’s new owner, people from as far away as London and Paris came to see what precious gems it held.

Gustave’s talent lay in his exceptional ability to see the hidden beauty of rusted-out bedsteads and old, beaten up baby cribs. Not only could he see their hidden potential, he could transform them into creations of exquisite elegance. Before long, interior designers to the rich and famous were beating a path to his door. The waiting list for one of his creations was several months long.

Gustave was a professional furniture designer who specialized in furniture recycling. He was always on the look-out for good pieces, visiting both estate sales and yard sales in his never-ending quest for used furniture. Twice a week, on the night before garbage-day, he cruised the streets in search of potential pieces. When he found one, he immediately brought it back to the shop, where he stripped it down and remodeled it. Cheap armchairs became stylish pieces of furniture fit for executive living rooms in his skilled hands. Their curbside origins remained a secret between himself and the interior designer purchasing it.

The sad truth was that, until the newspaper had run the fateful article, not many people knew that there were furniture designers such as Gustave, who specialized in recycling old pieces. Gustave sometimes wished that it had remained that way.

But Gustave did not only excel at recycling furniture. He was, on top of it all, an expert in antique furniture. His could unerringly spot the one true piece that lay hidden amongst a forest of lesser pieces. Genuine Pennsylvania Farmhouse dining sets could not avoid detection by his trained eye, no matter how many layers of paint they were hidden under.

He would spend hours lovingly restoring any antique that landed in his hands, even if it was not a piece of furniture. His love for antiques in general started when he came across a rather strange looking object, inside an old box that the store’s previous owner had never gotten around to sorting through. He didn’t know what it was, but his antique-alarm rang loudly. After a little research, he was able to confirm that he had in his hand a genuine nineteenth century female-bedpan. He was ecstatic.

Being famous is not easy for Gustave. He would much rather be spending time with his treasures than hobnobbing with celebrities. To light the burden, he has taken on a young apprentice who goes by the name of ‘Charles’. Like his mentor Gustave, the young man forgoes a family name. As for the bedpan that opened new horizons, it is now sitting proudly in the collection of a famous rock-star whose identity Gustave will not divulge.