I've been going through antiquing withdrawal lately. In the summertime, most weekends we'll take a little road trip, leaving the big city behind to explore small towns rife with old treasures. So when my fellow vintage-loving friend Tara at The Cinnamon Post mentioned Antique Avenue in Hamilton, I knew just where I could get my next antiquing fix.

The story of this shop is an intriguing one. The owners Adam Hughes and Tom Watson purchased the entire inventory from one person - a man named Darryl who had amassed nine truckloads worth of collectables, purchased from yard sales, auctions and estate sales over the last 30 years. Hughes and Watson, who renovated old houses for a living, bought the whole collection for $100,000 and became first-time shopkeepers, setting up their store in an 8,000 sq ft space on Ottawa St. N. in Hamilton. So fascinating, right?

Now you can understand why we jumped in the car and made the trek out on a very snowy Saturday last weekend. Lucky for us, the store was packed to the brim! Aisle after aisle of vintage goods, beautifully displayed. (Excuse the poor iPhone photos)

There was a bottle and jar aisle,

And a toy aisle,

A housegoods aisle,

An electronics aisle, a hardware aisle,

And some furniture too. There weren't many furniture pieces but I think the limited floor space probably means they have other pieces stored offsite. Hmmm. I loved these oversized tomes containing newspaper articles. Wouldn't they look great displayed in a library, stacked on the hearth of a fireplace?

Looks like quite the store right? But wait... there was more. The back third of the store was cordoned off by a black curtain. And there were just as many shelves there filled with unpacked boxes. Seriously, I think there was the next five year's worth of inventory back there, just waiting to be uncovered and unearthed, catalogued and itemized.

Were it not for a cranky, hungry toddler clinging to me, I would have settled in for the rest of the afternoon poring through those boxes. There's nothing like the 'hunt', right? I ended up buying a few things and I'll show them to you in another post. With nine truckloads of stuff to sell, I'm pretty sure this store will have some new treasures each time I go back. Maybe I'll bump into you there.

Antique Avenue

329 Ottawa St. N.

Hamilton, ON