The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
From homeless to mid-century modern
At 24, Branford man goes from homeless to opening Main Street storefront for CT Modern
BRANFORD >> Five years before Justin Norman was holding court on a recent afternoon at CT Modern, his furniture restoration shop on Main Street in Branford, he was crashing on a friend’s couch. His adoptive parents had kicked him out of their house. He was 19 and homeless.
Norman had spent his early years in Hamden with his six brothers and sisters. His biological parents were then using drugs. At the age of 8, DCF removed him and his siblings from their home and placed him with the family in Branford.
It wasn’t the best fit. He attended Branford schools and spent a year at St. Bonaventure University. A formal education wasn’t for him. He had other dreams, to own a business — specifically, a skate shop. Skateboarding was his passion.
Then he was sleeping on a friend’s couch. After two years in the Bay Area, he was back in Branford. “I’m an East Coast guy,” he said.
At 22, he was waiting and bartending at Su Casa when collector Larry Ryalls, the father of his high school friend Eric, asked for his help listing items for an estate sale on eBay.
Among the styles of furniture Ryalls was listing was mid-century modern, the design popularized on AMC’s “Mad Men.” It immediately caught Norman’s eye. And his imagination.
“Just look at the design,” he said, pointing out a chair made by Adrian Pearsall, a leader in early modern furniture design. “The clean lines, the grain in the wood, how it’s sculpted. It’s art, it’s comfortable, it’s timeless.” Not least is the parallel with skateboarding.
“Skateboarding is all about individual style, about making something simple look good,” he said. “That’s what people are drawn to, good style.”
In short order, he was haunting Goodwill and poring over craigslist to buy furniture and then reselling it on eBay.
“He had an instant knack for it,” said Eric Ryalls, who became his business partner. “And just this fierce confidence.”
Before long Norman was able to leave his job at Su Casa.
It was when a potential buyer asked him to reupholster a chair that he learned about Hanny Lerner. A celebrated entrepreneur featured in the New York Times and Forbes Magazine, her Brooklyn shop, Mod Restoration, was the mecca of reupholstering and restoring mid-century modern furniture.
“I told myself this was the person I needed to know,” Norman said. “I just kept pursuing her, sending her furniture for a quote request, then adding a note saying I was interested in working for her.”
His persistence paid off. Eventually, she invited him to her shop. He left with an offer of a full-time position. Starting in October 2015, he worked five days a week from 9 to 6, commuting three-and-a-half hours from Branford to Brooklyn, eating, breathing and sleeping the trade.
By December, he was exhausted, and exhilarated. “I’d learned what I needed to know,” he said. “I’d made contacts in that world. I knew I was capable of building my own business.”
He was also realizing he had a rare gift. By then, he had moved to an apartment on Linden Avenue where he could store furniture. But never more than 10 to 15 pieces.
“I know how to buy smart,” he said. “I buy what I know I can sell for a lot more money.”
Evidently. Take the time he and Ryalls drove to Norwich in a borrowed van to look at a couch he’d seen listed on craigslist for $200, Ryalls protesting they were wasting their time.
Norman knew better. He had seen the couch before. It was an Adrian Pearsall. When he got home, he took a photo of it in his driveway and posted it on eBay. Two hours later, it sold for $1,500.
That same combination of business savvy and sheer pluck was at work as Norman weighed renting the space on Main Street last summer.
“When I said I was going to get a storefront in the center of town, everyone said ‘you’re nuts, you’re 24, you’re not ready for that,’” he said. Every business podcast he listened to counseled him never to go all in.
Norman forged ahead, emptying his bank accounts and signing the lease, then sent out press releases to area newspapers. None of them covered his September 2016 opening.
That hasn’t seemed to matter. Customers have flocked to buy his CT Modern furniture from all over the United States and as far off as Bangkok and London. Two days a week, Norman is in New York, doing restoration work for high-end dealers online and in showrooms. He has a team of craftsmen at his disposal for specialized work.
“Justin has this survival of the fittest mentality,” said Ryalls. “He just wills things into existence. Watch out.”