Get to know Kyle Dubay, 34, and his partner, Bo Shepherd, 32. They are behind Woodward Throwbacks, a furniture restoration company and home goods store in Detroit that designs and builds its pieces with reclaimed materials found in the city, according to Business Insider.
They started their brand in 2015 after realizing that they could turn illegally dumped materials from demolished buildings in the city into art and furniture. A report from the city’s Department of Public Works says that about 700 tons of illegally dumped materials are collected in Detroit each week.
“We started using these materials because they were free and fell in love with the honest wear of the material and the stories they told,” the couple told Ebony.
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Remodeling homes led them to their recent project: an abandoned home with what they called “great bones” in Detroit’s North End, a predominantly African-American neighborhood of small businesses and churches.
When they heard (through a friend) that the three-story, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home was available for sale through The Detroit Land Bank Authority, an agency with a mission to return run-down and vacant properties in the city to productive use, they decided to buy it.
Dubay told The Mailonline, “He had us tour it because he was going to purchase it and have it torn down. He wanted us to see what types of materials we could save to repurpose them. We loved the house when we walked it with him.
“It was in terrible condition, but we thought it had good bones. So we asked him if he’d be ok if we purchased it and renovated it. And he obviously loved the idea of it being saved. So we ended up buying it from the Detroit Land Bank Authority on auction.”
They purchased the property from the DBLA for $6,500 in 2019 and reportedly sold it in February 2023 for $410,000. This was after the couple had transformed the old decaying home into a luxurious property by using recycled materials, including old basketball court floorboards and science lab countertops, according to Business Insider.
While the couple did most of the renovation themselves, they also got assistance from family and friends. Shepherd’s father works as a professional building contractor so he was able to help with some of the more technical aspects of the makeover.
The renovation work took three years and cost the couple around $300,000. One of the most expensive rooms to transform was the kitchen, as the couple had to invest in new appliances.
Click here for photos of the home.
