Pieces of Inspiration
Vintage Adventures Reaches National Clientele With Unique Artwork
Writer / Seth Johnson
Photographer / Kerch Creative
In less than a year, Amie and Chris Knuckles have seen their Vintage Adventures brand grow from a small, hyperlocal business to a thriving endeavor thats now shipping across the country.
Our Etsy shop is going crazy, Amie says. We do nothing but pack boxes and ship artwork out of our home. We made a map of the United States when we first started, and I wanted to put a tack in every state we sold to. Since July, the only three states we havent sold to are Montana, Wyoming and Maine.
With a brick-and-mortar space located at the Logan Village Mall in downtown Noblesville, Vintage Adventures specializes in making vintage-inspired, handcrafted wall art and home decor. Due to increased demand, Amie and Chris have brought on family to help with the daily workload, including Amies children Keera, Zack and Zander as well as her mother Debby, making Vintage Adventures a true family-owned and -operated business.
Chris and Amies first foray into home design came out of necessity, as the two were looking to move into a house together but couldnt find the furniture they desired.
We just really wanted some cool, unique pieces for our house, and we couldnt find anything that we liked at any furniture stores, Chris says. At that time five or six years ago, the real big trend was flipping your furniture and painting furniture. Thats when Amie said, We should try that, and I said, Alright. Lets go to an auction.
After designing several pieces, the couple quickly realized they had more furniture than they needed, which led them to start selling excess pieces to the public.
We liked a couple of them, and then a couple of them we didnt like, Chris says.
After selling pieces via Facebook for a few years, Amie and Chris came to a crossroads in 2020, when Chris lost his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a period of unsuccessful job searches, the idea to make Vintage Adventures a full-time pursuit eventually surfaced.
In June, Amies famous words were, We should start an Etsy shop. Itll be fun, Chris says. In June, I think we made $1,300 in sales off of Etsy. All of a sudden, from July through December we had five-figure months each month. At that point I stopped looking for a job because we couldnt keep up with production.
The sales success has now continued past the holiday season, as Vintage Adventures has continued selling unique wall art across the country.
Now, were a five-star shop on Etsy, and weve done close to 1,000 sales since June, Amie says. Its taken off like crazy. Were really proud of our artwork. It started out as a vintage shop where we were flipping antiques, but its now more of our artwork – thats what we do.
Visit Vintage Adventures at 977 Logan Street in Noblesville, or call them at 317-331-9971. You can also find them on Etsy under the name Vintage Adventures LLC.
