ABOUT
“We do not inherit the earth from our parents; we are borrowing it from our children.” At Deja Designs we see the old Native American saying as a compass point. What does that mean? Taking a bit less while honoring the past.
But Deja Designs is more than that. It rediscovers what’s come before. In some cases it is reanimating the inanimate objects, like using salvaged wood growing while Thomas Jefferson was President.
It is also about people, who made things—often with their hands. Immigrants who came to this country with huge dreams. Engineers, machinists, and factory workers who took pride being the best and making the best, at the time.
Deja Designs believes those days don’t have to be over. And we invite you to help us make it so.
A bit more on the founder…
When his son was five years old he would say, ‘My dad doesn’t buy anything new– he’d buy food used if he could.’ An old line that makes friends and family laugh because it is kind of true…
Deja Designs creator Peter Schulberg has a true passion for repurposing the old and breathing new life into it. He sees function, beauty and a story where others see junk. Always aware of waste around the world, Peter is moved to counteracting it in ways big and small.
In 2005, he opened a non profit art gallery in mid-city called Eco-Logical Art (Eco-LA) that promoted environmentally conscious work. Its biggest project was hiring local artists to paint on recycled billboards that were put up around Los Angeles and San Francisco as public art.
Here are a few press pieces that highlight the gallery’s work over the years:
Due to hiked up rent prices, Peter closed the gallery space and came up with a plan b. With his knowledge of construction and training at the Cooper Union School of Architecture, he began renovating 100 year old houses around West Adams and South Los Angeles.
In keeping with his mission he took on forgotten and unloved houses and transformed them. With a keen sense of design and passion for revival, he honored the bones and history of each house while at the same time giving them a future.
With real estate at an all time high in Los Angeles, it was back to the drawing board. Which lands us at Deja Designs. What started as a desire to outfit his homes and stage them with interesting, unexpected, recycled furnishings has transformed into a new full time job for Peter.
And in an era of AI, mass manufacturing and overall excess surrounding us, the time feels right again to create handmade, purposeful objects with thought and life.