Deb is starting to get her big workshop in order.  She’s been moving all of her cabinets from the little garage, that she temporarily turned into a workshop, to her permanent one.  This workshop is something that has been a long time coming.  We recently hung her vintage fluorescent business sign and I wanted to give you a little back story on it. Because the story of how we got it is pretty cool.

Vintage Fluorescent Business Sign in the Workshop

I received a text asking if I would help her for a little bit in the workshop.  I knew it meant she either needed help lifting or hanging something.  Little did I know that she wanted to hang this vintage fluorescent business sign.  We have had this sign for YEARS!  It has hung in several of our garages and all of Deb’s workshops throughout the years.  It was in storage for 3 1/2 years when we moved from the House on Winchester to the rental.  In fact, when we emptied the storage unit last month, she made the comment that she wanted to sell it.  I was shocked.  And told her to at least wait until she gets her workshop put together.

I would guess it was the year 2005-ish…  We lived in town.  The guys who worked for the trash department in town knew that Deb and I loved vintage and antique items.  We were actually friends with one of them.  So, it wasn’t uncommon of them to text her and say , “Hey… I saw an antique piece of furniture setting out for us to pick up on 2nd street.”  We would go check it out and grab it if we wanted it.  This is sort of what happened regarding this vintage fluorescent business sign.  It was being thrown away so Deb decided that she would hang it in the garage and light it up when she was working in there.  It looked so cool that we carried it around to each home.

We had a party at one of our homes and one of the guests walked in the garage and said, “Where did you get that sign?”  It just so happened that she used to work for the Courthouse Square Cafe when she was in high school in the 70s.  And she remembered it well, which I thought was so cool. It is double-sided and has 4 fluorescent light bulbs on the inside that light it up. 

Disguising the Plug

She will, of course, be disguising the plug but we wanted to get it hung and lit up so we could see what it would look like.  And, she informed me that she may want to move it back a bit, so it’s more above the work bench.  But, I actually love it where it’s at as it gives the room a bit of depth.  And.. these are 10′ ceilings so it is way high enough to walk under.

I know NOTHING else about this sign except the information I shared.  If you have an old picture of it when it was actually hanging as the Courthouse Square Cafe, in Decatur, Indiana, I would love to see it.  And, I will add it to this post.  Let me know in the comments or email me at debanddanelle@gmail.com.

Also… when talking about the 1970s, it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago.  I’m realizing that it was 50 years ago.  I cannot even believe that.

We still have more signs to hang in the workshop.

We have had so many old street signs in storage that we have bought throughout the years.  So some of them may be hung in the workshop.  She is still unclear if she wants to use them all.  We also have another big lighted sign that we found at the Springfield Ohio Extravaganza flea market last year.  I don’t think I shared that here, but I know I did over on social media.

So stay tuned for all of those and the rest of the workshop put together.  As I will be sharing that process every step of the way.  Including her organization items because they are the best.  I cannot wait for her to get it done.

See us hanging this sign on Instagram here!