jan milliman

An old mill in Medina, NY is home to an antique shop with a new spin.

Todd Belfield was in elementary school when he started to take an interest in old things. After a fire damaged a church nearby, his family took in and stored some salvaged items.

“It intrigued me, the mystery of it, having these old artifacts in the basement, wondering what stories were under the dust and ash,” he says. “They didn’t have a home anymore — these special things that have a special story and nobody wanted them. They didn’t have a place. Maybe it triggered me to find them a new home.”

Today, Belfield re-homes old items from his shop in Medina — Jeddo Mill Antiques. Situated in an 1850s grist mill, Belfield is the curator of a carefully chosen selection of objects he’s rescued. His artful presentation plays up the new possibilities of the old items he has for sale.

Tail lights from a 1950s Plymouth are mounted on a wall to suggest the sconces they might become. An old expandable dinner table has gone through a Steampunk make-over; having its top removed and replaced with glass to expose its gears.

Sitting in a corner is a plastic garden urn that might look old, but isn’t. It “shouldn’t be in an antique shop — it messes with people’s heads,” Belfield says. But in the urn he’s created a vignette that includes a painting by a local artist, some old glass bottles, and paint brushes. Again, suggesting the possibility this cast-off item holds.

“Repurposing is the best way to attract the younger set,” Belfield says. “Some old-timers think antiquing is dead — it’s not. We were the first people doing the ‘green’ thing and that attracts the young people. I try to set up the store in a way that lets them know they can reuse things in a new way.”

Belfield makes his home in the second floor of the mill, where his delight in old things is the theme of a unique living space. His slide-out bed is concealed in a raised platform that functions as his study. The windows he added look older than they are thanks to the addition of trim recovered from a Greek Revival home in Pavilion, NY. Wood paneling on the wall is actually a door he found in the trash, turned on its side, painted, and fitted with the ledge from a chalkboard discarded by a Catholic school in Lockport, NY.

His grandparent’s 1950s dining room chandelier has been touched up with some red paint and hangs above his study table. This piece “triggers a memory,” Belfield says. Little details like this “make people feel good about where they live.”

Over his mantel, hang five old hub caps that were painted red, blue, and yellow by a previous owner. This shows how you can use something that you wouldn’t think of for décor, he says. “Normally people put something precious over the mantel” – whether that means their TV or some sort of art. Belfield’s hubcaps are joined by an old red metal scooter.

When it comes to stocking the store, “I can only buy things that I love,” Belfield says. “In a way, this whole building is my house.”

“I price things reasonably because I want them to be affordable, I want people to come back, and I don’t want to stare at them for ever,” Belfield says. His customers often bring in pictures of how they’ve used the items they’ve bought. “That brings it full circle and makes it worthwhile,” he says.