Old & New on 22 offers unique home decor

By Molly Roberts
Posted 11/16/21

Sandie Ubben and Rusty Rogerson opened Old and New on 22 in Riverside about a year ago, in the middle of the pandemic.

“We decided to come together as a business and create Old and New on 22 …

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Old & New on 22 offers unique home decor

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Sandie Ubben and Rusty Rogerson opened Old and New on 22 in Riverside about a year ago, in the middle of the pandemic.

“We decided to come together as a business and create Old and New on 22 because we knew we wanted to fill the needs of people wanting antiques and retro things, as well as new things,” Ubben said. “Although it was during the pandemic, we decided to make a go of it. We have been very fortunate and have had the support of not only the local community, but also people from the Muscatine area, as well as Burlington and Iowa City.”

Ubben said Facebook has been an important outlet for her business — she and Rogerson can post about current projects they’re working on, new items in the store, when they’ll be open and upcoming events and sales.

Rogerson mentioned that they didn’t have a large amount of money to start their store and they didn’t take out a loan. They simply started by stocking the store with items from their own homes and buying from estate sales and antique stores when they could.

Everything for sale in Old and New is unique and many items have been refurbished or repurposed by Ubben and Rogerson, such as a dresser that was chalk-painted purple and outfitted with new handles, which Rogerson said looks absolutely nothing like it did when they first bought it. Ubben also repurposes old parts such as chair legs or an old rake to make wall art and yarn art.

“It’s been both of our dreams to have a place where we could share our love of antiquing and refurbishing, bringing our passion of finding joy in one man’s trash, finding another man’s treasure,” Ubben said. “We love finding an old piece of furniture along the way and turning them into pieces of art that other people can have in their homes. And finding a piece of pottery or dishware and hearing someone say, ‘Oh my grandma had this! I remember this from my grandma’s home!’ is also wonderful. We love bringing back memories for other people.”

Ubben said she and Rogerson are also more than willing to help people with their own refurbishing projects.

“We’re more than happy to share ideas on how to do things. We’ve had some children looking for ideas on how to do 4-H projects and we’re more than willing to share how to chalk paint, where to get the supplies at,” Ubben said. “We know that Gambles in Kalona carries the chalk paint that we use — we asked that they would start carrying it for us so we could get it locally.”

Ubben said she recently helped a 4-H’er create a table out of an old suitcase, another one of Ubben’s favorite refurbishing projects.

Old and New on 22 is currently well stocked with Christmas items, many of which have been curated and put together by Ubben and Rogerson.

“We have Christmas stuff ready so it can walk right out the door and it’s ready for people to put it right into their homes,” Ubben said. “The work is already done — the Christmas tree is already decorated, they can walk right out the door, plug it in and Christmas is ready to go. We take the work out of decorating for them. No creativity is needed on their part, we’ve already done it.”

Ubben and Rogerson look forward to Small Business Saturday on Nov. 27, when they will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will offer drinks and snacks to go along with a day of wonderful shopping. 

“We’re looking forward to small business Saturday coming up the weekend of Thanksgiving and really hoping that people realize that there’s a lot to be found in our store and they don’t have to worry about something sitting in a shipping container — we have items for purchase right here. I think they’ll be happy to find some memories from Christmases past here, too.”