Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Photo Essay: The Purple Moon

Last week, The Purple Moon celebrated their first anniversary as West Virginia's only shop dedicated to vintage mid-century modern and contemporary design, furnishings, accessories, and art. Their store, tucked away at 716 Lee Street East, right in the heart of downtown Charleston is a treasure trove of atomic age delights. Chuck and Connie Hamsher have created a terrific space where Charlestonians can finally find all that cool retro stuff that we see on the Home & Garden channel when they do a post-modern weekend.

I was fortunate to run into Chuck last week when I had my digital camera with me and a few minutes to spare before meeting Melanie for lunch. So, I ducked into The Purple Moon and snapped a few shots to share with you guys. You can probably tell I love this place. I've always had a fondness for post-war design, and I've spent the last decade writing about vintage toys from that era. And so for the next three days, PopCult will present a few photos of the cooler things you'll find at The Purple Moon. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and their stock rotates constantly, so you might want to visit the store and take in all the coolness in person. Thanks to Chuck and Connie for letting me go wild with the camera. This weekend, The Purple Moon will be surrounded by FestivALL, so if you're in town for the entertainment, stop in and look around.

Today, we're going to focus
on some of the cool furniture and lamps that you can find at the store.





You gotta love sectional couches. This one's a beauty.











Eating at this table would be just like dining with the Jetsons.












The Purple Moon has a huge selection of great atomic-age lamps. This is just a tiny sample.









Very cool stuff, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.


Tomorrow, we'll look at some of the cool toys and artwork that The Purple Moon has in stock.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Purple Moon is the coolest store in West Virginia! I take anyone visiting from out of town in there to show them there is some "big city" style in West Virginia. They deserve a big congratualtions on their first year gracing downtown Charleston!

Anonymous said...

whatever