The road from salvage store to lifestyle brand.
Sure, you could call it a salvage business, but that doesn’t tell the whole story of Black Dog Salvage. It all began in 1999, when Robert Kulp and Mike Whiteside bonded over the pending demolition of a local historic home. They made an offer to rescue its architectural treasures, sparing them from the wrecking ball. And with that, Black Dog Salvage was born.
The journey from architectural salvage store to lifestyle brand has been a roller coaster. Although it began with salvaged and upcycled items, Black Dog Salvage (BDS) now includes an interior design showroom, a monthly marketplace for local artists and vendors, known as the Dog Bowl Market, a furniture design studio, a line of furniture and furniture paint, a vacation rental property—The Stone House—and an event venue, also called The Dog Bowl.
There was also a little thing called a reality television show.
The series Salvage Dawgs, featuring the BDS band of talented salvagers, ran on the DIY Network from 2012-2019. In more than 143 episodes, the affable Kulp and Whiteside and their team make tearing apart old houses and barns, well, riveting. You can still catch episodes of Salvage Dawgs on streaming services.
Black Dog Salvage regularly pops up on Trips Advisors’ list of most popular things to do in Roanoke, and Salvage Dawgs attracts visitors from far outside the region. But BDS customers don’t fit neatly in a demographic.
A passerby may be drawn in, curious to discover what’s inside the yellow 40,000-square-foot warehouse on the edge of Roanoke’s historic Grandin Village. Builders and renovators, DIY types, and shoppers looking for something they don’t know they need are all in the mix. On weekends, BDS attracts families strolling the neighborhood, looking for a diversion. BDS’s real dogs, Molly May and Stella, are usually on hand as official greeters. Customers can bring their own leashed and friendly canines.
Most recently the Black Dog Salvage podcast has been added to the mix. Each episode features a special guest, a “DIY Top Tip,” and a look behind the scenes of a Salvage Dawgs episode. BlackDogSalvage.com
