If the items on this page look as if they’re ready for the trash, look again. Don Short and Marsha Steele have made a career out of breathing new life into neglected and worn old things, transforming them into treasures that consumers cannot wait to adorn their homes with.

“Constantly people are looking for something to add to their homes to make them unique,” said Short, who runs West End Architectural Salvage on 1408 Locust St. “It’s nice to say you used something old for decoration rather than everything brand-new. All architecture salvage is one of a kind.”

Short’s shop is filled with dusty treasures rich in history, such as a massive door from Afghanistan, which was owned by Jack Taylor before he passed away, now priced at $3,750. Stained-glass panels believed to come from South America, which were in Gringo’s restaurant before it was remodeled. Rows of fireplace mantels, walls packed with rustic mirrors and boxes upon boxes of doorknobs and handles.

Short never expected a weekend sale of items he had accumulated while renovating homes would turn into a seven-days-a-week business, but his architectural salvage store, which has been open about a year and a half, has taken off to the point that he’s now moving into a four-story warehouse at Ninth and Cherry streets. The move is partially motivated by Jack Hatch’s offer to buy the building where his store is now located and also the one Short owns next door to turn them into a residential and commercial development. Short will run two stores until after the Des Moines Arts Festival in the summer and then will close his current one on Locust.

Short spends a lot of time reworking pieces he receives, because unlike in bigger cities where architectural salvage stores receive so much inventory they can survive selling pieces as-is, Des Moines’ salvage supply is limited. Short said he often receives items such as 40 milk crates that then need to be turned into something else, like wine racks, before they can be sold. But he added, “The beauty is that there’s no right or wrong. If a piece never sells, you do something else with it.”

Steele doesn’t have the space to sell larger architectural items like Short can, so she prides herself in collecting “one-of-a-kind vintage.” Although she sells most pieces as-is, she will engage her customers in conversation to see what they’re looking for and how she can use a piece or two to creatively make that happen.

“If someone comes in and says, ‘what can I do with this,’ I just made the connection,” said Steele.

Her store, Found Things, on East Grand Avenue, is an eclectic mix of old doors turned into mirrors, small tables with chipping paint and anything else her 42 consigners bring in. That blend inspires creativity. A dress model, for example, could be become a classy coat rack with a wire cage underneath to store gloves and a hat, Steele said. She also is looking at making jewelry out of old tin doorknobs and will take old typewriter keys and use them to form words like “true love” and “dance.”

Steele said when people come into her store, they are reminded of something they have at home that they should dig out, or that they have something they’re not using that they could sell and get something else.

“You can go to Pottery Barn and get the same thing,” Steele said. “OK, but every once in a while you want something a little different. … You know what you get with mass-produced, but what can you find in one-of-a-kind?”