Laminate, Chrome, and Plenty of Curves—How One Vintage Seller Digs Up Floridian Furniture Treasures

Welcome to Good Vintage, a series that goes behind the scenes with furniture resellers and dealers to find out how they got their start, where they get their stuff, and what inspires them to keep it up. Know of someone we should talk to? Reach out.

"Our rule of thumb is that it needs to be quintessentially Florida," says Chaim Romano, owner of the Delray Beach-based vintage furniture resell company Dolphin & Flamingo, of how he sources his wide-ranging styles. "There’s the side you see in movies and pop culture: the ’80s pink waterfall stuff, the cocaine-era decor, all that. But before that era, there was a massive amount of midcentury modern, French Provincial, Rococo, and other traditional Italian and French styles. Then there’s the tropical side of Florida, from South Florida all the way up to Jacksonville, which is a lot of rattan, bamboo, wicker, and all the Southeast Asian coastal-inspired stuff."

Romano, a South Florida native, stumbled into the resell industry to satisfy his love of the hunt and to learn more about his home state’s history through the lens of its furniture. ("I’ve never been a hoarder, but I hold onto things that remind me of childhood or something I like," he says.) After finding some success selling furniture on Facebook, realtors began calling him to quickly clean out retirement homes with the incentive that he could keep everything. Romano says the work was intimate, often sad, horrible for his asthma, and that "half of the stuff was garbage, but I was learning that these elder people had refined taste in furniture and decor. Their homes would be loaded with premier stuff from 1992."

When Romano launched his business in 2019, customers knew him as the dealer for "postmodern Art Deco Revival, laminated furniture, the pink waterfalls, and the vibrant pastels, which were abundant," he says, because skilled laborers, many of whom were Cuban immigrants in the Miami-Broward area, helped mass produce these styles while offering customization. "You could walk into a showroom, pick a color, pick some shapes, provide measurements, and they loaded up your whole house affordably. That’s what we kept getting truckloads of. A pink bedroom set wouldn’t last to the weekend, although that style has slowed down quite a bit."

These days, Romano says roughly 90 percent of his inventory comprises the "colorful, tropical stuff" found in retirement communities in Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Coral Springs, and the Broward County area—all within 30 minutes from his Delray Beach warehouse. He also stocks a decent amount of antique-looking Asian furniture like lacquered tables accented with Mother of Pearl inlays and illustrated room dividers originating from places like China or Korea. "It’s surprising how much Asian furniture is totally quintessential to South Florida. Antiquity always uplifts a place and it’s beautiful to have in a room," says Romano.

So who’s buying most of this old Floridian furniture? Some of it stays local, but the bulk of Romano’s sales are in the Northeast, Texas, Southern California, and the Midwest. "L.A. is probably our number three market. New York is number one," he says. If you’re a shopper based in a faraway city, it helps to know what you’re getting yourself into when buying online. So here, Romano shares his advice for how customers can get the best value for their buck.

Buy direct for the best prices

Romano lists pieces on resell platforms like Chairish, 1stDibs, and Etsy for discoverability, but if customers are able to take that extra step, Romano recommends they seek out the same piece on the official Dolphin & Flamingo site and buy direct for the best rates. "We’re at the whims of the platforms and have no control over [their fees and shipping structures], but when you go on our website and add something to your cart and put in your zip code, you’re going to get a unique shipping price upfront," he says. "Customers should ask dealers for a shipping price based on location," rather than paying a fixed fee provided by resell platforms.

Resist the single-aesthetic furnish