Dealer Feature: Historic Evergreen’s Unique Bain Lake Antiques

By Jon DeStefano

   Tim and Melanie Flanagan, the owners of Bain Lake Antiques in historic downtown Evergreen, didn’t just jump into the antique business. They were very thoughtful and deliberate about the decision. Two years ago they were living in Texas and had decided to sell their family business for thirty-five years, a very successful Nissan car dealership.

   Wanting to get out of the heat and humidity in Texas, they decided to explore Colorado. They started in Colorado Springs and it wasn’t long before their adventures took them to the foothills of Denver. They discovered Golden, Morrison and Evergreen and knew that was the area where they wanted to live. They made the decision, packed up and moved.

   Getting into the antique business happened almost as smoothly. Tim was always a collector of something. When he was younger, he went to a lot of concerts and festivals and he just started collecting musicians autographs and baseball cards and other treasures. One thing led to another as the collections grew and he expanded into different collectibles and then antiques. He never got set on one specific thing as long as it was unique and uncommon. It could be primitive or old world.

   “I was always pretty much of a buyer,” Tim said, “until I collected so much I needed to do something with them. So I decided to become a seller and we started looking for a place to have an antique shop. We stumbled on this place! We were very fortunate. It is located right in the heart of historic downtown Evergreen on Main Street next to Beau Jo’s pizza and so close to Baskin Robbins.” The shop was an excellent art shop for many years and before that it was a fine antique shop for a long time.

   The name of shop Bain Lake Antiques came easy, too, Bain is Tim and Melanie’s son’s middle name and Lake is their daughter’s middle name.

   The shop is packed with great Old World and vintage antiques and man cave items. Tim explains, “I try to stock the shop with things you don’t see in every other antique shop. Unique stuff that may help someone decorate their homes or cabins in a unique way.”

   In Bain Lake Antiques you will find everything from crystal decanters, cork screws from France, skeleton keys, unique items from Germany and Switzerland including wood carvings, to vintage photos of various historic people, from the mid 1800’s to the roaring ‘20’s. You can find railroad collectibles, mining memorabilia, oil wick teapot lamps, miners’ hats, pottery, lanterns, and a lot of Americana.

   There is even a beautiful antique roulette wheel, the finials have Denver Colorado on it. Tim figured it would be easy to sell in Colorado. Like everything else in the shop all the antiques are in excellent condition.

   Bain Lake is stocked with a lot of ski lodge decor, furs, skis, ice ax from Austria, animal mounts, antlers, oars, paddles and much more. One of my favorite pieces is this huge antique painting 6’ by 4’ foot on metal by a French artist.

   Bain Lake is big into wooden signs, vintage photographs. There are many unique pieces including antique Native American carved pipes, short ax pieces, antique fishing equipment, lanterns, lamps and tools. The rare antique carved beer tap spouts are wonderful.

   There are some great home decor signs Melanie has made out of wine barrel staves, with great sayings like “Wine a little, laugh a lot.” She breaks the barrels down and also makes some unique hat and coat racks.

   “This is my second man cave,” Tim says, “Found the spot in January, secured it that day. Took two months to get ready. We opened March 1.” Sound easy? Not really, Tim and Melanie knew a couple of years ago they wanted to get into the business. They did their home work, planned well, started accumulating their inventory and everything fell into place. Their long time business and life experience made it seem easy.

   It is a lot like their store, 1259 square feet with 3500 unique, quality items, placed well and presented in a simple and attractive manner. They add 75 to 100 unique and uncommon pieces to their inventory every month. What a great shop!

   Next time you are in Evergreen stop by Bain Lake Antiques and visit with Tim and Melanie. You’ll be glad you did. It’s a family business and when you’re with Tim and Melanie you’re part of the family.