Refind charms with spacial, aesthetic design

For couple Vincent Finazzo and Sarah Connors, Refind was a matter of fate. Connors is an interior designer while Finazzo was educated in art and raised with a green thumb, both having a shared love for salvaged goods. Refind, a local spatial design company, is the pair's expression of repurposing materials into decorative home goods using greenery as their main inspiration. "We're in essence a design company that's trying to bring the outside, inside. We want to fuse this Victorian garden botanical wonderland with modern aesthetics", says Finazzo. Their products encompass everything from charming succulent planters created with scraps of wood to wall hangings made from recycled textiles. They want to bring a natural organic lifestyle into urban environments.

Refind made their debut at R5 Production's Punk Rock Flea Market this past winter. To their surprise, they were sold out of all products before the day was over. They could barely fathom their one-day success. It was clear that the pair's drive and passion had paid off and it was time to see this thing all the way through.

How do they find the materials that they use? They're mostly street finds but Finazzo and Connors aren't scrappers. "When you talk about salvaging materials, you don't want to be removing a building or object's history that has a chance of coming back. But once a structure has gone past that breaking point, you know it's going to get knocked down, or thrown away and you want to preserve it," says Vince. Everything they make has history or a story attached to it. Once something is gone, it's gone forever; but now it can live on reincarnated as something beautiful. With limited supplies of materials for each product, from different sources, each item is really one of a kind.

Connors and Finazzo are currently holding down day jobs that take up a majority of their time. They operate out of a workstation built in the basement of their South Philadelphia home, which is convenient with their hectic schedules. "I think being young and poor, we want it all." says Sarah. "You read these blogs and we see these young professionals achieving these unreachable goals doing similar work and making a living off of it. At the end of the day, we want that too." The two foresee opening up their own storefront; but lucky for them, a few local businesses have opened their doors to host their work. Moon and Arrow, a boutique located in the Fabric Row District, currently has their foliage pieces available for purchase. You can also find Refind showcasing their newest products and work on May 9th at Northern Liberties' quaint Random Tearoom.

You can find out more about Refind, and purchase a one of a kind item, on their website.