Southern Accents Architectural Antiques

Do y’all read Kevin and Layla’s blog called The Lettered Cottage? It’s all about renovating their little cottage in Alabama, and it is full of fabulous decorating/renovating ideas and how-to’s. I adore it. Well, a few weeks ago, Layla wrote a post about redo-ing their darling little reading room into a guest room. You have to go see the results – sooo precious! Anyhoo, in the post she mentioned that she drove to Southern Accents Architectural Antiques in Cullman, Alabama, to buy some old gym flooring to use in the reno.

You know, I had a little blog envy.

And Cullman is only a few miles up the interstate from me.

And I like quirky old things.

What’s a girl to do, except hop in her car and drive north!

You guys would not BEEE-LIEVE how fantastic this place is. It is about four or five beautiful old downtown buildings, and each building is filled to overflowing with items that have been salvaged from old homes, buildings, stores – you name it. They have some of the most unique finds that are just oozing with character. Oozing, I tell ya.

The business was started in the 1960’s by Dr. Garlan Gudger. He loved old architectural pieces and began collecting them from homes and buildings around Cullman. Soon his collection overtook his garage and other people began buying his treasures. Once it got to be too big of an operation to keep selling from his garage, Southern Accents Architectural Antiques was born. It has, in the years since then, come to be known as one of the best antique salvage operations in the country.

They have stained glass. They have old doors. They have mantles. They have knobs and pulls and hooks. They have lighting fixtures. They have bathtubs. They have room after room of molding.They have ironwork. And it is all fabulous!