Today we’d like to introduce you to Timothy Dooley.
Timothy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Hi! I’m Tim, and I’m The Retro Den.
This philanthropic venture of mine began in 2012, when I spotted a vintage cocktail shaker that a friend had turned into a lamp. I was so impressed that when I found a similar shaker at a thrift store, I made one as a gift for my mom. She loved it, and when her friends visited, they kept asking if I’d make one for them. So I decided to test the waters and dropped off ten of my creations at a Norfolk consignment store called Urban Castaways. Much to my surprise, all ten lamps sold between October and December, and The Retro Den was born.
When my eight-year-old daughter joined in, it was pure joy. We turned almost anything into a lamp. What began with cocktail shakers now includes old-school percolators, teapots, espresso pots, box cameras of every kind, silver-plated sugar bowls, beer tap handles, auto parts, and even musical instruments.
My daughter enjoyed making whimsical wind chimes from silver goblets and silverware. One year, when all the flowers in my garden had died, we decided to make flowers that would never die. We turned old vegetable steamers and solar-powered LED lights into garden art, and the lights drew over 34K views on a website called Hometalk.
In 2013, I started doing local art shows and pop-ups. I made lamps from January to September and sold at shows from October to December. Setting up and breaking down booths is hard work! In early 2020, Lori Hobbs, Director of Art with a Heart, contacted me and invited me to display my lamps in what would become a real estate office in Virginia Beach’s VIBE Art District. The space, called The Vertical VIBE, was an office Monday through Friday and an art shop on weekends. The opening was planned for March, and then, boom, COVID hit and everything shut down. As things began to reopen, the response from customers was phenomenal. People started asking me for commissions to turn their favorite items into lamps.
Sadly, I learned The Vertical VIBE would close in early 2022. Luckily, around the same time, word spread that a large store called The Painted Tree was about to open in Virginia Beach’s Hilltop area with over 250 booths. By then, my daughter had developed other interests, so I opened a booth there and shared it with Eric Worden, morning host on 93.7 BobFM and fellow upcycle artist. Eric was known for turning old guitars into eclectic art pieces he called “GuitART.” Around that time, I also set up my Google Business Page and began offering door-to-door lamp repair.
The Painted Tree was a great venue while it lasted, and The Retro Den enjoyed a four-year run there. It closed abruptly and filed for bankruptcy on April 14 of this year. The Lazy Daisy had opened the year before, so I made it The Retro Den’s new home. It’s a much better fit, with more locally handmade goods and fewer resellers, and the owners are wonderful people who keep vendors involved in the energy of the store. They also own a second Lazy Daisy in Yorktown. I love the story behind it, too: the owner opened the store after the tragic loss of her seven-year-old son, Morgan, as a way to heal and carry on.
Over the years, The Retro Den has pushed its designs further, adding pieces to our product line every year and breathing new life into iconic old items, transforming them into something beautiful and, best of all, different. The sky is the limit, and we love commissions. It was a joy to share this time with my daughter, and I still love what I do more today than when I first started. I like to think these pieces put the “FUN” in FUNctional Art. We hope you think so too.
Cheers,
Tim Dooley
The Retro Den
Turning the Ordinary into Extraordinary Since 2012
Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Instagram:
www.facebook.com/theretroden and www.instagram.com/theretroden
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Setting up for the big weekend art venues & shows meant one day packing up, 3 days standing around and chatting customers at the shows and another day unpacking up and putting Everything away the day after the show… ansd then preparing for the next time. Yes it helped with sales but for me that was a loss of productivity.
I’m so jealous of the jewelry makers. They pack up in minutes… I’m there for hours. First to show up anmd last to leave. When I starte selling in store it mad things much easier and allowed me to creat and sell year round.
\I am so jealous of jewelry makers. They are able to pack up in minutes… Me? I’m there for hours. First to show up and last to leave. When I started selling in store it made things much easier and allowed me to create and sell year ‘round.
Sourcing affordable lamp parts that are American made is a huge challenge especially when your lamps hone that time in American history when “Made in the USA” was the gold standard of household excellence. I love supporting Made in America and especially local artists and artisans. I strive to find American made parts but some items like light bulbs, switched and plugs are all sourced from overseas and there are no American sources for those items.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a full time engineer for the government, I found that creating lamps was a huge departure from my 35 years in ship repair. I found it to be very therapeutic and I enjoy connecting with people who are outside of the maritome industry.
Every year the lamps got better the feedback was better People learned about what I was doing and were coming to me asking for commissions along the way I’ve some wonderful people I even met the former ambassador to China on the day we were celebrating my daughter’s adoption day.
Many of the customers I’ve met along the way have become good friends.
People know that if they want something “different”, that is what we do at The Retro Den.
Back in 2023, I was contacted by a company in California asking of if worked on chandeliers. I was totally on board however I had no idea I was engaged to re-assemble a 1941 Murano Glass chandelier that was arriving in Virginia Beach and and being shipped from Budapest. I consulted Mary Barnett’s a well respected lighting store in Norfolk, VA who guided me and provided me with a contract form to protect myself in the event any difficulties present themselves. I was very grateful that all went went. It was a huge accomplishment for me and added to my already growing confidence.
I think the thing I am most proud of is that it provided an opportunity for my daughter at a very young age to be comfortable with public speaking, to think outside the box and to give back to society with our contributions to her orphanage and to different charitable organizations especially Breast Cancer Awareness as a way to keep my kid sister Colleen’s name alive as she had lost her battle with breast cancer in 2010.
How do you think about luck?
I’ve had nothing but good luck. Word of month works and discovering new avenues of success by chance works too. Selling three of my Budweiser tap handle lamps to the HR Director of Anhueser Busch was a mind blowing when I participated in Second Sundays in Williamsburg, VA
Discovering just how powerful a Google Business Page can be has been very empowering. It has allowed me to help others business . I don’t own a Brick and Mortar but in doing what was recommended by several reliable sources on the internet as to how to build up one’s Google Business Page… “The Retro Den” is now one of the top three companies that pops in a local search of the 757 (or if not in the top three) when searching for “Lamp Repair Near Me”,
Some lighting stores are now coming to me to me to address repairs they are not interested in performing.
I love that…
The previously mentioned job of re-assembling an 82 year old Murano glass chandelier was a huge stroke of luck,
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.TheRetroDen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theretroden
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theretroden/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2M6B5l_tvHDAWCBDIARN7g
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-retro-den-virginia-beach
- Other: https://www.bbb.org/us/va/virginia-beach/profile/lamps/the-retro-den-0583-90555927
