Tyler and Todd Home Opens in Newburgh

In the old Hudson Valley House Parts Spot, a New Home Goods Shop

By   |  Photos by Red Goose Studio  |     |  The Source

Fariba Todd and Chase Tyler were looking for a space in Newburgh when they heard that the architectural salvage/antiques business, Hudson Valley House Parts, was moving to a bigger location. The business partners jumped at the chance to rent the sunny 6,000-square-foot Broadway space and opened their new shop, Tyler and Todd Home, in early March.

The retail space is the second Newburgh investment for Tyler, who bought a shuttered church to rehab into both a living space and a workshop during the pandemic. Tyler, who began his career as a costume designer, previously had an interior design business in New York City, where Todd served as the financial director. “We decided to do this retail business,” says Tyler. “And we were talking for a couple of years about getting out of the city for various reasons. Then Covid happened. It was like, okay, let’s really get out of the city and figure out how to make our dreams come true.”

Located in the former Hudson Valley House Parts space on Broadway in Newburgh, Tyler and Todd offers reupholstery as a service for clients.

Their meticulously organized new shop abounds with vintage and new home goods that reflect their focus on quality and style. Many of the pedigreed pieces were refurbished and given a new life. A green velvet Adrian Pearsall chaise lounge sits next to a graceful Hans Wegner chair before the storefront’s expansive glass windows, while further into the well-stocked main floor, there’s a white couch set that would be at home on the set of “Miami Vice.” There’s also custom furniture designed by Tyler, including the zebra-skin-clad bench he created for a nightclub and a faux leather end table, composed of melded circular columns. Much of the antique furniture has been flawlessly restored, a service Tyler still provides interior designers, but now also extends to the public. If shoppers find a piece of furniture they love, he can reupholster it in new or even retro fabric. There’s something about making each piece perfectly suit the buyer that appeals to the shop’s owners.

“We figured retail would be fun,” says Tyler. “It would be a way to take our beautiful stuff to the public and do what we’re doing already, but make it more open to the public, so we have an interaction with our customers, more of a social life.”

Todd, who began buying and selling antiques as a side gig in college, developed a lifelong love of vintage furnishings and fashion. “We love beautiful things and treasure hunting,” she says. “We go to auctions and estate sales all over.”

There were so many items they could not resist. “We were sort of doing that anyway, even though that wasn’t our business,” says Tyler. “And then I had a house full of furniture and a shop full of furniture.”

The quickly evolving streets of Newburgh seemed like a natural choice for their planned expansion. Their retail space is reasonably priced, compared to New York City prices. Set on a sloping street with a gorgeous view of the river, it’s also not too far from the city.

“A lot of craftspeople have moved here,” says Todd. “A lot of makers. It’s a nice place for us to be with people who have similar interests. A lot of people from the city moved into the Hudson Valley, especially during Covid, so there are a lot of people who just purchased homes and are looking for things for their homes.”

“We also get a lot of TV and movie people,” says Tyler. We had people in here yesterday that were shooting a movie in town and we had people today.”

As far as a general design aesthetic, the business partners don’t have a particular style they favor. Instead they focus on craftsmanship—whether the piece is a nubby tartan Pearsall couch, a sleek Eames chair or a beautifully restored Danish dining set. Their choices are eclectic, and include some things they personally might not want to live with, but recognize might fit perfectly with someone else’s decor. 

“It’s just about the beauty and the craftsmanship of each thing that we’re able to come across,” says Todd. “And people seem to respond to that.”

She describes the shop as offering all the items that make a home a home—from custom curtains to one-of-a-kind pillows to vintage lamps. “We have lots of dining room tables and chairs and lots of sofas and rugs and things that people need.”

There are more than a few reasons these entrepreneurs remain fans of vintage furniture. Mixing up furniture styles from different eras keeps interiors from being boring, but also refurbishing and upcycling older pieces—rather than buying new things—is an environmentally conscious choice. Antiques also tend to be of better quality than many newer pieces.

“You can pass these things down to your family,” she says. “With all the younger generation buying homes in these neighborhoods, I think there’s a definite appreciation for quality. The people buying older houses that we’re seeing here are in their 30s and are putting a house together for the first time. They are inheriting stuff from their parents or their grandparents, pieces that they grew up with and they loved.  Some kids don’t want any of that, but the people who buy in these places do tend to want that. And then they want to mix it with some mid-century pieces or some cool new things. They’ll bring in things that their parents gave them and ask Chase to refurbish them. That’s always nice. We had a couple come in that brought in a chair she inherited from her father. It was a nice mid-century piece and needed cushions, so Chase is making cushions for them.”

Upholstery is a shrinking art form, partly because it’s such hard work and requires a couple of years of training, but Tyler really enjoys restoring pieces.

“It’s nice to be able to go into a mom-and-pop upholsterer,” he says. “Every town used to have one. Back in the old days, my grandmother would get her sofa redone every five or 10 years, so a person would keep the same furniture their whole life. That’s going away.”

When shoppers admire a piece of furniture at Tyler and Todd Home they can talk to Tyler about possible alterations. The store’s custom work includes creating built-ins as well as adapting existing furniture. If you like a bench but want it just a little smaller or in another color, that’s possible.

“You can come in and have a designer experience as a consumer,” says Tyler. “Just a regular homeowner consumer, which is nice.”

Having options is what makes Tyler and Todd Home a distinctive eco-conscious shopping experience.

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