Farmiture Will Showcase Functional Art In Thornhill's Building

Sayville, NY —For ten years, an Islip couple has been creating unique works of functional art, combining their love of fine art, salvaging historical pieces and hunting through rural areas for forgotten pieces of treasure. Now Nick and Nancy Groudas are excited to create a physical retail space for the one-of-a-kind creations in a two-month pop-up shop in the historic Thornhill's pharmacy building at 2 Main Street. The shop will showcase a rotating selection of the Groudas' work, including pieces of furniture and lighting and wall art made from salvaged materials found on the East End of Long Island, as well as in rural New York state and Pennsylvania.

Nick Groudas told Patch that he and his wife have had success at art fairs and by showing their work in galleries on the North Fork and the Hamptons. Nick is an art teacher and Nancy is a special education teacher.

"Miraculously this opportunity presented itself," he said, when Matthew La Piana, an architect who revamped the pharmacy building, was looking for unique tenants in the redesigned space.

"He fell in love with the idea that we make it all from found materials," Groudas explained. Because every piece is made from rescued items like wood from barns being torn down or metal items left in fields, none of the pieces can be reproduced and are all unique.

"We are like 'American Pickers,' we go to barns and farms and yard sales. You have to excavate the stuff from where it is in the fields, rusting away." The couple then houses the pieces in what they call their "boneyard collection," before working in small metal and woodworking sheds they have at home.

"Our customers appreciate things from the past; they don’t want something mass-produced. Each piece tells a story, about where it came from." Groudas thinks Sayville's downtown is the perfect place for their work to be shown.

"Sayville has a bustling downtown where people stroll and shop. It has that historical presence, that Main Street revival that's been missing," he said.

The shop will showcase a range of the Grouda's curated work in home-like vignettes so visitors can envision how the pieces would work.

"We are so excited—we've been wanting to do this for 15 years"

The pop-up shop will be open from April 1st until May 31st.