New or Vintage, 146 Duke St. Station Offers Fast Track to Unique Home Furnishings

Some people seem to be able to make any hodgepodge of items fit together to tastefully fill any living space.

Then there’s the rest of us, who close our eyes and picture how a room should look. But when it comes time to troll the aisles and buy tables, chairs, artwork and couches, the end result is a jumbled, poorly-executed mess.

There’s nothing worse than having a sense of style but stink at shopping, or wanting quality but finding nothing but cut corners, or having a desire to be unique but wondering how many millions more are perusing the same catalog as you.

A relatively new store in East Greenwich’s historic original 1870s train station on Duke Street, 146 Duke Street Station, might be the answer to design-challenged homeowners across the state.

“We’re not an antique store,” notes Christianne Anderson, who co-owns the store with her husband, Ron Sarro.

Instead, 146 Duke Street Station is more like a showroom of unusual and interesting pieces that have been restored, repurposed and provide style and durability at a fair price. Along with a few new ones.

“If someone’s looking for something a little unusual, that isn’t cookie-cutter, we’re the place,” Anderson said.

There are plenty of people who want to buy a chest of drawers “that doesn’t look like it came out of Cardi’s,” Anderson said, a jab at the huge furniture chain that dominates the mass-produced furniture market — and the airwaves with fancy commercials.

And “frankly,” she said, “people are tired of buying pressboard furniture. If you have cabinets and they get wet, they swell up. We just don’t have that here.”

Instead, you’ll find real wood and other materials that will stand the test of time. Many items come from small dealers and vendors who paint and repair pieces before they end up in the showroom. And nearly all of the jewelry at 146 Duke Street Station is made right here in Rhode Island.

“We have a lot of people who live right around Rhode Island and Massachusetts who do their thing. And we sell it here,” Anderson said. “We are very happy to find these people — or they find us.”

Among those people is Lisa Gaumond, owner of Re[find], which sells new and vintage clothing online. She now has racks in the store laden with Prada, Armani, Ferragamo, and other brands, “all high end but she’s selling them at deeply discounted prices,” Anderson said.

The store does take items on consignment, but not everything will be accepted. It has to go with the flow of the ever-changing displays, Anderson said.

“We do consignment particularly in furniture and unusual things, not just small things people are trying to get rid of,” she said.

While there are already a lot of consignment shops in Rhode Island, including some quite good ones, 146 Duke Street Station is different, Anderson said. The market is changing and younger people aren’t antiquing.

“People aren’t looking for those things anymore,” she said. “Young people aren’t looking for sterling silver and china sets. They’re having a hard enough time paying their rent.”

For a store that offers new lives for items from the past, their new home in the train station couldn’t be a better fit.

The old train station was purchased vacant by Paul DiSegna in 2014 and he undertook a major restoration effort, fixing up the entire exterior and installing new windows and custom storm doors.

“He had everything you could possibly have done to the building redone,” Anderson said, who along with her husband, family and friends, rolled up sleeves and worked on the inside.

The building previously was the All-Aboard restaurant, and after that, the former home of the London Bridge Learning Center — now diagonally across the street.

The result of their efforts is a fresh, clean and inviting space that hearkens back to a time when trains still streamed through, connecting riders to New York and Boston.

The station played an important role in East Greenwich’s growth and development in the late 1800s and the rail line itself is a thread that weaves together much of the town’s economic and industrial heritage. The railroad was constructed in 1837 between Providence and Stonington and routed through town after local officials insisted.

Though the store opened in early June, it celebrated an official ribbon cutting last week with members of the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce. Among those in attendance were several children from London Bridge. It turns out that Anderson’s niece attended the school. Ultimately, in an effort to be a good neighbor, Anderson said the store will team up with children and local businesses to plant a garden next spring, among other things.

The store is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Sunday, it’s open from 1 to 5 p.m. Another hour might be added close to the holidays, so check out their Facebook page for the latest info.

Photo caption: Pictured above (from r to l) East Greenwich Chamber Ambassador Anne Lewin of Datapay, Ron Sarro of 146 Duke Street Station, Christianne Anderson of 146 Duke Street Station, East Greenwich Chamber Executive Director Steve Lombardi, Janet Kenney of London Bridge Learning Center and students from London Bridge Learning Center.