A New Life for Refurbished Danish Vintage Furniture. Lars Noah Balderskilde & David Singh

we've found a way to have a career.

And make a positive impact that really follows our values.

We're also talking about democratic furniture, something that's accessible to

everybody

Well, hello, thank you so much for listening to all of these amazing and exceptional, positive imprints.

I'm Catherine, your host for the podcast, your positive imprint, the variety show, featuring people all over the world whose positive actions are inspiring.

Positive achievements.

Exceptional people rise to the challenge.

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Download his music and also some of his written compositions for piano.

Chris composed elevated intentions, a perfect title, which I use at the end of the show.

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Your positive imprint.

What's your PI.

When I think of Denmark, I think about the social atmosphere; the smiles of bikers passing me by and just a very contented population.

Danes just seem lay back.

At least the friends I know, but also very involved and concerned with what happens tomorrow- moving into the future.

Lars Noah Balderskilde and his husband, David Singh are concerned about the world's landfill problems.

And they stepped up with their positive imprints.

They refurbish and resell discarded mid-century Danish furniture.

And I am not talking a few pieces here and there, but thousands upon thousands of pieces.

And they've influenced so many Danes to help them in their quest to locate unwanted Danish furniture.

Taking his name he formed and opened Lanoba Design.

David and Lars Noah are remolding what has become a throwaway society into more of a repair and reuse society where we won't need to purchase brand new products for some things.

I'm so excited to have Lars Noah Balderskilde and David Singh on the show to share their exceptional, positive imprints, Velkommen til podcasten.

Jeg er meget lykellig til møde dig.

Welcome to the show.

Oh, tak.

Tak..

Danish.

I love the language.

I speak very little of it, but it comes back every now and again.

And so Lars, David, thank you so much for being here to share your positive imprints and amazing stories and the wonderful background and you're already influencing the world.

Lars and David's extraordinary journey begins in Denmark with their own fairytale.

We all know that fairy tales never really end.

Fairytales do come true.

Uh, so we met

We had a beer together and started talking and, uh, yeah.

I think four months after we moved in together and we've pretty much been together day and night since and still going strong,

so that's like the short version of

how we met.

Is a very short version.

Yeah, so I was born in the U S and raised in Chicago.

But I had moved to Europe, uh,, had a very corporate career, working in corporate finance and business management, uh, for many years.

So I started out my career working in, France and in Europe, uh, and then had moved on to Denmark and Sweden and the UK working.

So that's why I was in Denmark, through my job.

So I had been living there for about four years when I had met Lars in a bar.

We just kind of hit it off and spent the night talking.

And so the next night we went out to, uh, a club opening and continued just talking all night long.

It became a very quick relationship, I guess, that we were together nonstop, uh, for the first few months.

And then when we both needed a new place to live, we kind of looked at each other and four months was very quick, but we decided since we were spending every minute together of why not.

So we move in together and, uh, we, um, no issues and we spent two years living in Denmark together, each doing our corporate type jobs.

When I got the opportunity to move to Peru with my company, which I placed a phone call to Lars saying, do you want to make the next move together?

The next big move together.

And, the only response was can the cat come?

And when he found out the cat could come and he was willing to, leave his job and come to Peru, where we spent three years living.

Oh my gosh.

Uh, yeah.

And we were there for three years while I was on contract until we decided to make the move to the U S and start this business.

I love stories like that, where it's just love at first sight, but it's not just that physical attraction.

It was that communication.

You spent the time communicating and talking and getting to know each other.

It's just so wonderful when you meet somebody and you just know, you just know,

I

think for both of us, when you talk about, when you meet someone and you could talk all night long, and it's not this instant attraction, it's actually the shared values that you have.

And that's why you can talk all night long and you can make plans together.

And we really do have, uh, both a sense of adventure and wanting to educate ourselves and explore through different cultures and different experiences and all the experiences that you've come across.

Good or bad is part of your education in life.

I think within Denmark, it's such a small country, uh, having been there quite a long time.

We were just seeking out, something different and outside of our comfort zone.

I had been talking about it was time for the next step in my career, but more of the next step of my life is I needed something that was a little more challenging

It was a big step for a lot of reasons.

One, um, to move together to a third country, it was neither of our countries, being together, going to a developing country where that was a very new

Also being gay where it's not as accepted in Peru.

At the time we were not married.

Same-sex marriage doesn't exist in Peru, so, um, you know, uh, it, it, it presents its own challenges, uh, in terms of going and working and living there.

So it wasn't the easiest step that we took.

And, uh, there were a lot of really great experiences.

There were some very difficult experiences, but through that path of three years, it taught us a lot about what we wanted to do and where we were going to go afterwards.

And while we weren't sure the exact thing we're going to do, we definitely knew what we didn't want to do.

And after our three years, we, took out a map and looked around the world of where do we want to go next?

And because we have a lot of these shared values and we went through this shared experience, we just started kind of checking off at least places that we didn't want to go.

One of the things is to be, be on equal footing and have equal rights as partners or spouses.

So that was very important with, Lars not being able to work for three years, which was the first time since he was a child not working.

That was very important to us, but also what kind of Liberty and freedoms we want in terms of work and stress and how we wanted to approach our lives.

So, uh, we took out the map and kind of narrowed it down and came up with a few solutions.

But the best solution that we had that would put us both on equal footing was to come to the U S

wow.

What, this is such insight for me to hear and to, hear what you're saying about equal rights and choosing a place where you feel comfortable, but also, wow.

The two of you walking that journey together and that communication, and those decisions that you're making just really strengthens and bonds the relationship.

So I want to go to Peru, how could you feel comfortable and safe at the same time?

We didn't really experience any bad things.

Uh, the thing is when you are in Lima, it's a big city and all bigger cities are always more tolerant to other people.

Uh, but also we were mainly, uh,

With other expats and maybe higher level educated people.

And there was really no issues there.

And people at the David's colleagues at work knew that we were together and things, and there's never been any, been any issues.

But of course, if you go

out to like

the rural areas, like the jungle and, and maybe the desert or wherever, maybe that's not where you are going to wave the rainbow flag and, and things.

For us, we didn't experience a lot of problems, I think is fortunately that's not the case for a lot of Peruvians who are rejected by their families who are

On average, I believe it's like, one, uh, homosexual teen is murdered, every week in Peru.

Um, there's a lot of issues within the gay community, the trans community.

Um, and it is, uh, a struggle.

There were a lot of people who had also never probably met someone who was gay before.

So it was also very important to just not hide it, I think, and show people that, you can be a leader, you can run a company.

Uh, you're just a normal guy trying to do his job

. I think it's really important that you just go and show people

There's nothing odd.

There's all different kinds of people.

Uh, and we're all just trying to make it through and do our jobs and live our lives.

So I think it was very important also just to be ourselves and show that we can integrate into a community.

And that there's no issue.

If I had a beer right now, I would toast to what you just said.

That was so well done.

Yes.

Cheers.

Well, put, well said and very eloquently put with your words.

Thank you so much for that.

And for sharing that experience, and I'm glad that you mentioned be yourself because those words be yourself are very inspiring to those who are struggling and they don't have to be gay.

They could just be struggling in whatever suit they're wearing.

And so be yourself are very, very inspirational and important words for the global society.

So you took out the map and you chose United States.

So here you are now while you were in Peru, being that it's a very much a third world country in terms of environmental law.

Did any of that have any inspiration on your decision to move forward with Lanoba Design?

I think there's a couple things that built our decision when you talk about the environmental, one of the things is Peru is one of the most beautiful countries in the

There's so much in a little country.

It's such wonderful people and such a wonderful history and culture.

But one of the things I think that was very disappointing to us was the environmental impact that we were seeing and that there was not a focus on it.

And knowing that, indigenous tribes were at risk that I think it was always a very sad thing for us to see, especially moving from Denmark, which is very focused.

It's very green country.

So for us just, it goes to the basic, the litter in the streets and the rain forest along the beaches and in this wonderful, beautiful country.

Our feeling was also, it shouldn't just be an economic issue.

This is something that people, if they could step up and want to create a better community for themselves to have clean community would be really important.

And it's going to save the environment, create better lives and environment for the children and the next generations.

It's important that we continue to focus on our values, that we really believe in this.

And when you're in Denmark, maybe sometimes you can forget about it because everyone is thinking the same way.

We were living in a privileged to society in Denmark concerning that issue.

When we moved to Peru, we took everything we had.

Uh, so we packed up like a 20 foot, , ocean freight container.

And we bought paper napkins, old socks that was really just trash.

Eh, we took everything.

Eh, so when we moved from Peru, we started talking about it.

It's like, is it really, um, environmentally friendly to take all this we have now in Peru and ship to the U S once again, because the carbon footprint we would send out would be huge.

So, uh, so we had a target.

It's like, let's just try and get rid of as much as possible.

So if we can have a few suitcases or whatever to be shipped to the US, that would be the perfect goal.

The ex-pat community in Lima, they have a, Facebook's site where you can sell things.

And we started maybe four or five months before we were going to move, put a few things on that Facebook group.

And people were, eager, they were very, interested in, in the things we had.

It sometimes took like an hour and then we'd sold an old Ikea cabinet or something like that.

So that kind of

pushed us further and let's just go all in.

And we put everything up on the Facebook group.

So over two, three months we we sold everything and, so we ended up with yeah.

What, 10 boxes or something.

Well that is simplifying for sure.

Absolutely.

And, and I liked that you talked about the carbon footprint.

Many of the world's citizens are trying to find ways to minimize our carbon footprint.

Sometimes it gets difficult because we've got, legislation or corporate law or whatever it might be that, opposes us.

This decision, which is a huge decision.

What you're doing is incredible.

I have to tell you how I found you.

So we have a Danish furniture store here in town, Tema, and we shop there for our furniture.

I love Danish furniture.

In fact, my desk, here's my Danish, stand-up desk.

Anyway, the owner happened to be there that day and I'd never met the owner Søren.

But he said that he read an article on Lanoba Design.

And he said, wouldn't that be great if you could have them on the show?

I said, send me that article.

Thank you for responding when I reached out.

So I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Positive imprints are everywhere.

And your fellow Dane loved the story oh, it's not just inspiring.

It's something that the more you talk about it, this is something that other people around the world can duplicate.

So, uh, okay.

So let's talk about the big furniture idea.

So the way we structure this is when we decided to come back to the U S and, um, what we wanted to do when we came up with the idea of the business, um, we

So where I have a business management and corporate finance background, I can take on that side in terms of the furniture, the design aspect, um, the history, um, that w and the creative side was more on Lars.

So we had a good balance and we could learn from each other.

So we could both cover everything eventually, but we had our strengths so that we could, we could really build something strong we thought.

Without having to, also to bring in investors or make it a lot more complicated.

We thought keeping it simple was the idea of the business.

We wanted to really bring something authentic and so we had to really own it and believe in it ourselves.

So that was a really important aspect, uh, in terms of setting it up and establishing it.

Yeah.

we got really the idea by going to estate sales in Chicago.

So

since I was a little kid, my parents always took me to flea markets and

Estate sales and things.

And we, uh, as a family always enjoyed that.

So it's been in my blood since I was born.

And then we went to some estate sales in Chicago and we saw there was a huge demand for, for the Danish

pieces that was at these estate

sales.

And I was

thinking okay, a lot of people are looking for these pieces, but they have a very, very limited, uh, amount available to purchase.

So, so that's when we started talking about it, it's like, maybe we can do something like bringing some of these old pieces over from Denmark because, uh, in Denmark,

Um, so, so we started doing some research like, where are we going to start the business up in Chicago or where would it make sense to, to start a business like this?

So we, uh, went on some trips around and just ended up in New York and found there was a gap in the market in New York.

We knew that we wouldn't go with the high-end pieces, like chairs that would cost $10,000 and things.

Because when we talk about Danish modern sawmills, we're also talking about democratic furniture, uh, something that's accessible to

everybody or that's at least the philosophy behind it.

Um, and in New York, nobody was really covering this part of the market.

It was all antique stores with very high end pieces.

Um, so, so we said okay, I think this is where it makes sense to start up the business also because in New York you have smaller apartments and small homes and Danish furniture are not big.

So they would fit into these apartments perfectly here.

So, uh, so yeah, we decided let's just go jump right into it.

And then we moved to New York.

I went to Denmark to collect the first container of furniture.

It took me three-and-a-half months to collect, the first container, because we had to start from scratch.

How do we get all these?

Because we didn't want just to call somebody a wholesaler or something we wanted to go out and meet the people that we were going to buy the pieces from, get their stories, how they bought the pieces.

So we could bring that story to the people that would purchase it in the US.

Um, so, um,

Oh wait, wait, wait.

So, okay.

Something Lars that you said.

You said, you're getting stories about the furniture.

This is going right down to grass roots of furniture.

I mean, this is fantastic because people who go into an antique shop, they do want to know the story.

Who's great great, great, great grandmother sat there and,

I think it's very noble of you to want to spend that much time away from your husband in order to get this going and get the stories.

So can you share a couple of the stories of pieces and kind of describe the pieces?

I just think this would be so cool.

So I'm going to just do one thing first.

So in starting the business was also.

Thinking about one of the things that we enjoy in life is experiences.

And so when you're buying something, yes, you need a table.

Yes.

There's needs, we have in our lives, but filling a need and getting an experience out of it, I think makes it even more enjoyable.

A table can be a table and you can like a design or something.

But that was part of the thing is we wanted to continue the longevity of the products, but also be able to pass on an experience.

And we thought that was a very important thing in terms of creating something that was a little different than out in the market that just buy an old table.

And we thought that would really, motivate people to switch from just clicking a cart on Amazon or Walmart and rather taking vintage products into their home because

Oh, I love this.

Absolutely love this.

So Lars,

in my hometown of Fredericia, um, I met a old guy.

I think he was 80 or 82 years old and I can't even remember how I met him, but, uh, he said that he had some teak furniture down in his basement.

If I could use that then I could come and have a look at it and we could discuss from there.

So I went over to him and we, took a tour of his house and he started telling me about his life and things and, uh, and, and, and he had some very nice pieces of teak furniture and we agreed on a price.

He thought that the pieces are going to be sold in Denmark.

And I tell him, no it's going to our business or to our shop in New York.

And he just got all

white in his face.

He wanted to spend those money that he earned from selling these pieces on a plane ticket to go to the U S.

It's always been his big dream to go to the U S so it was just like, uh, yeah, financing his plane ticket to come to the U S and he wanted to go to New York.

So when he heard that those pieces of furniture of his were going to get a new home in New York, he was

so happy.

Oh, for someone who has been dreaming something all your life.

Wow.

I love that.

These two brothers, uh, contacted Lars because he was looking for furniture and he had been in the area.

So he went out to visit them and, they had a few pieces and they were kind of clearing out, everything they had and Lars was asking, okay.

But they had a table, uh, and they had started talking and uh, he asked, well, why are you selling these things?

They said, We have a dream.

We want to start a business and Lars said, well, I'm starting a business.

That's why I'm buying this furniture.

And they said, well, this is really going to help us out because we have a dream of creating, a Christmas museum that's open every day of the year.

They love Christmas.

They're on the Danish news every December with an update on how they're growing their museum.

But this was before it had opened.

So there was selling off things just to get enough money, to keep expanding, to build a little houses, to hold all their ornaments and things like that.

From us buying from them, that was the start of them raising enough money to start their business.

And it was the start of our business.

So it was a very nice, a warm feeling that we could grow two businesses at the same time.

And we were both at the infancy stage.

We've watched them grow over the past five, six years.

And so it's been a very nice way, that we can both, uh, start something new and fulfill our dreams,

um, continue to be part of it.

Yeah.

So fulfilling your dreams, but also continuing to watch there's.

Uh, another one, do you have another one?

Well,

I went to buy a desk, and, when we were carrying out the desk from the house, a Bible fell out from, from the desk and, it turned out that, it was, uh, a guy that was the priest of that little village.

I asked the daughter don't you want your Dad's old Bible?.

No, she had so many of his Bibles because he's been a priest

and things.

So, so that Bible

came with the desk.

So when we sold it in the U S the desk, it, it came with the Bible.

And that story,

Whoever got it, even though they couldn't read Danish, that, uh, the Bible would stay with the desk and there was some coins and things.

It was, uh, one of his main writing desk.

I think he had a few desks.

And one of the things also that was on the desk is he was left-handed I believe.

He wrote every Sunday sermon there, there was kind of the mark from where his hand, had been writing and the oils natural oils.

So there was a mark there.

Even when it was refurbished, you could still see it because after 52 years or something of writing his sermons there, uh, it was there.

And it was just the story also about, how dedicated he was to writing on this desk and the Bible there that he always referenced when he was, writing every sermon.

So we thought this all goes together and it goes with the history and that someone will appreciate that and maybe carry it on for the next 50 years.

Oh, I would love that desk.

Anybody would love that desk?

Just because of the, the past.

It is like getting it from a museum, but wouldn't you like to know some of his sermons, just, uh, so this is something that's not known that you do.

For me, this is an imperative part because we talk about reuse and you're refurbishing, but also you're taking those stories and you're weaving them into your work.

And so a person gets the whole package.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's, it also goes both ways of a lot of people are very excited and they're happier to sell it to Lars in Denmark

Because it's very exciting that their furniture is going to take a voyage also and live a very different life.

Uh, whether it be in New York or gets shipped to California, um, and some people follow along and they're amazed that it can be restored because it's just been sitting in their basement for years and years and years.

And they will ask us

to send them pictures when it's repurposed, eh, and tell them what kind of home it went into and where like, did it go to Brooklyn or to downtown and things.

And, and we do that.

We send those stories back to Denmark and the people are very thrilled about getting that feedback that maybe a coffee table they had in the family for 50 years suddenly have a new life in a young home in Brooklyn.

Uh, so a lot of times people, are Ecstatic about that , we, uh, uh, sending these pieces to the US.

It's much more interesting for them than going to another home in Denmark.

I think like with the older generation, some of them have not grown up with the ability to travel the world like we have.

And so for them, it's a way of just exploring and, and sending their furniture out in the world.

And it's a, it's a journey for them.

And it's very exciting for them to know that it's in Brooklyn or Manhattan.

Also a lot of the pieces that we buy are from the original owners.

So they're, they're older.

For them, a lot of times you'll hear a very common story that it was, a wedding gift, a house warming gift.

It was one of their first pieces of furniture that they ever had, when they were establishing a house.

So for them, it's also a way of extending longevity and extending the story is because it's also going to, a lot of our customers are new families.

They bought their first house, they're having their first child and it's part of their establishing story of their family.

So it's getting this second life with a second family that will hopefully live another 50 years and then the grandchildren will inherit it or, or such.

So I think it's very exciting for them to see that another family it's helping build their family, uh, in the next steps.

I really liked the way you have structured this, because it, it is not only green, but it's green with a story.

You've already gone places with this and it's exciting.

So, Lars, are you the one that does most of the refurbishing.

Uh, no, uh, in

the beginning I was, uh.

We had a loft space in, in Jersey city, in downtown Jersey city.

And the first container when we, uh, we got that in, we would have a bed over in the corner and then the rest of the space would just be stacked in with furniture all the way up to the ceiling.

And then one piece at a time we took that out to the kitchen and, I had to teach David how to do the refurbishing and slowly he started helping.

In the beginning he was oiling the pieces pretty much.

Yeah.

But now he's fully educated and can do pretty much everything with refurbishing pieces of furniture

Lars, is a, like he said, he started out very young going to the flea markets and that with his family, but he also learned how to refurbish

So, you know, Lars especially the high end pieces.

He's always the one who takes those on he's the one who has the depth of knowledge of decades of refurbishment.

he's been the one who's been able to teach how to treat the products, right?

Because that's another thing.

We wanted to focus on something that we knew and that was Danish furniture.

So we do anything mid-century modern.

When, you know how to do something and you do it well, uh, that, I think that's the really important part.

So Danish mid-century, it was about knowing how to refurbish those pieces, those materials, and doing it as best as possible.

When you start kind of diversify too much, you kind of lose that expertise.

So it was important for us to know physically how to do it, that we know the history behind it and be able to research not only the personal stories, but the manufacturing, the design, and the ability to do that.

, I think it's a beautiful story of how mid-century modern furniture really came to be.

And it's a long and rich story that it just didn't come out of one designer coming up saying, we need to build a lot of furniture.

There was, the story of the war and coming out of that and why we needed to build this kind of furniture.

So for us, in order to go deep into something we needed to focus on one thing.

And what Lars knew was Danish furniture, the materials, how to refurbish it and the history of it.

So I think that's really, what's been helping us, grow and be better people better refurbishers better at storytelling, and help build a business.

And it's also important for us that when we have the customers at our place, uh, to tell them about the science and teach people about Danish design, that

So we do a lot of things to, uh, to make people feel welcome, to spread some hygge.

In the years after World War II Danish furniture makers work became known around the world as it was very distinct, yet simple.

Next week Lars and David explain how they refurbish furniture with the environment and small carbon footprints in mind.

More of their positive imprints next week.

To learn more about Lars and David's work you can go to LANOBAdesign.com, L a N O B a D E S I G n.com.

Don't forget to hit that download, subscribe, or follow button now, and please leave positive reviews.

Your positive imprint.