East Walnut Hills Has Landed An Incredibly Cool Antique Shop In Wild Things

David Wenzel grew up in the antiquing business. In fact, he purchased his first two cars from flipping finds. Suffice to say, this is an industrious young man. By “young,” my guess is thirty-something. But that’s just part of the story, the backdrop for a much more interesting present-day chapter, one in which he’s partnered with Joshua Larson to open up Wild Things Antiques on Woodburn Avenue in East Walnut Hills.

The storefront officially opened on Friday, November 24 of last year, but they’d been operating as Wild Things for a couple of years now. They'd hopped from one antique mall to another until they landed at Riverside Centre Antique Mall in February 2017. Having gained a reputation as being great for vintage, modern, wild, and funky finds, it became apparent that a permanent store was necessary.

Timing, in life, is everything, right?

So it goes. Wenzel and Larson benefitted from serendipitous timing. Left Coast Modern, the previous tenant of the Woodburn location and seller of antiques, was planning to leave the space. Wild Things, welcome to the neighborhood.

For fans of mid-century modern design, which is very on-trend these days, they’ve got a Josef Otmar desk hanging out in the front window. They are also collectors of Blenko glass, which originates out of Milton, West Virginia. Oh, and I found a Winnie the Pooh figurine in the rumpus room. Not sure if it’s worth as much as that Otmar desk—but Winnie!

Now about the name well, it’s best to let Wenzel sew those pages together.

Joshua’s favorite book as a child was “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak. In fact, he has a large tattoo [] with the quote “and the walls became the world all around.” We feel like we create the life around us by what we put on our hypothetical walls, like Max in the children’s book. But we also feel like you can use your literal walls to express the life you want to create (through the things you use to decorate) and somehow magically it becomes the world around.

When discussing the idea of opening a shop, the name Wild Things just fell into place, making complete sense because our style is eclectic and wild—and we were, indeed, finding things “in the wild,” which is a term that collectors use for finding pieces in non-traditional places. We are a bit wild ourselves, and our brand’s personality is quirky, so it stuck and is hopefully starting to make an impression.

So I guess the only question that remains is are you ready to get a little bit wild? If so, you now know where to turn.

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Wild Things Antiques is located at 2809 Woodburn Avenue (45206).