A Rusted Development: The Inventorialist
Editor’s Note: This shop has since moved to 715 Dorman St. Always check the nomadic Inventorialist’s website for its most up-to-date location.
“Curated” has become an overused term for any tasteful boutique when the word should be reserved for the likes of The Inventorialist, a pop-up shop recently retooled as a new-generation antiques store open Thursday through Sunday. Here, owner Kristofer Bowman arranges oddities into quirky-beautiful vignettes. One wall displays antlers, track-and-field medals, horse-mane shooflys, a Chinese Checkers board, and an 1840s Audubon Society print. On a desk, a paper in a 1960s Dutch Royalite typewriter ($60) reads, “The ‘S’ sticks, but that is totally repairable.” Bowman, a 36-year-old art-history major, makes creating decor with old objects look easy, but few people have his eye. One trick: Space things out. For instance, he lays wooden spoons with color-dipped handles on a shelf instead of bunching them in a jar. You could gravitate toward the familiar, like cafeteria trays ($8 each), prints from Bowman’s artist friends, or hip greeting cards that wrap around a wine bottle (“Drink your antioxidants”). Your home might not qualify as “curated,” but “how cool” is well within reach. 646 Massachusetts Ave., 317-513-7802, theinventorialist.com
Photo by Tony Valainis
This article appeared in the July 2013 issue.
