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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Windows of opportunity


Doug Miller and his partner, Adam Parker, recycle old windows and cabinets and turn them into art. The pair estimated that they have painted 1,500 windows and cabinets. The total weight they think they have recycled is nine tons.  
 (Photos by Jed Conklin/The spokesman-review / The Spokesman-Review)
Cheryl-anne Millsap cam@spokesman.com

Sometimes, all opportunity needs is a window.

Doug Miller started out in Spokane. A graduate of Lewis and Clark High School, Miller worked as a faux paint artist in Las Vegas, and did a stint as a cabinet maker before he moved to the Seattle area and became an antiques dealer.

Among his specialties were repainting and decorating furniture found at garage sales and flea markets by using his artistic skills.

One day, tired of staring at a blank wall in his store, Miller looked around for something to cover the space.

“I had stacks of old windows and since there wasn’t a window on that wall I thought I would add one,” Miller says. “I painted the glass blue so it would look like the sky.”

Within days a customer talked Miller into selling the impromptu art piece to her.

“You know how it is in Seattle,” Miller says. “Anything that looks like a blue sky is always appreciated.”

Miller quickly painted another vintage window and that one was snapped up, too. “I realized then that I was on to something.”

Along with partner Adam Parker, Miller began to rescue old windows. Each was painted with a different scene. Sometimes Miller’s collection of ephemera – vintage maps, posters, prints and other paper items – were incorporated.

The pair sold the painted windows from their shop and set up at local outdoor markets like the Freemont Market.

“We always sold whatever we took to sell,” he says.

Miller estimates that they have sold as many as 1,500 pieces in the last year.

Because they only use recycled material in their work, the environmental benefits multiply. “We recycle paint, paper, windows and other objects,” he says. “We figure we’ve kept five tons of waste out of the system.”

In addition to old windows, the pair paint on cabinet doors.

“We go to the Habitat Store, and to the salvage places and buy the paneled doors from cabinets,” Miller says. “They make a perfect canvas.”

Their work is sealed so that it can be hung indoors or out.

“People buy our pieces to hang on the patio or on the deck,” Miller says. “It gives you a way to have art in an outdoor space.”

Prices range from $35 to $95.

“Even the biggest piece is always under $100,” Miller says.

After losing the lease on the Seattle store, and moving to Spokane last February, Miller and Parker have been busy painting. Although they would eventually like to open their own retail space and get back into the antiques business, for now they plan to sell their painted windows at some of the seasonal markets in the area.

Future plans include restoring a house and possibly opening the kind of upscale flea market one finds in other parts of the country.

“I did the California flea market circuit and we need something like that here,” Miller says.

But for now, Miller and Parker have got their hands full.

“Everyone migrates home at some point,” Miller says. “Right now I’m happy to be back in Spokane.”