Trash? What trash?

An old house ready to be torn down … a pile of blackened lumber thrown out on the curb … orphaned doors and windows headed to the landfill…

Trash? Oh, no.

These are treasures for Wayne Anderson, of Tuscumbia.

Anderson designs and makes tables, consoles, entertainment centers, cabinets, bars, stools and more from wood and other materials that most people would throw away -- and do.

"You can't buy a piece of new wood that has the quality and consistency of old wood. You just can't do it. You can't go into a store and get the grade of lumber that we want to use," Anderson said.

"That's why we have to go out and find the wood for ourselves," added Neal Rogers, Anderson's apprentice.

Anderson is founder and owner of Fuzzot Furniture, a wholesale business headquartered in Tuscumbia that turns discarded lumber, glass and metal into furniture with a funky and creative vibe.

Fuzzot's showroom, a renovated former neighborhood grocery store, is home to Anderson's latest designs. The furniture features such recycled details as salvaged chair spindles, tin ceiling tiles and heart-of-pine tabletops.

The pieces don't stay in the showroom long.

Dealers across the Southeast snap them up and sell them to waiting lists of customers who want one-of-a-kind home décor.

"I've done real well with Fuzzot," said Pam Smith, who had brought a van from Pear Orchard Antiques, the shop she owns in Ridgeland, Miss., near Jackson, to load up on new Fuzzot creations.

"People's lifestyles are more casual now, and they want furniture in their homes that reflects that. It's been very popular with my customers, especially the consoles that are perfect for the new flat-screen TVs," Smith said.

Anderson, Rogers and a couple of others make the furniture in the Fuzzot workshop, a barn-like structure around the corner from the showroom. It's filled with piles of chair legs, stacks of old doors and bundles of unpromising-looking lumber that Anderson and his "pickers" salvage from dumpsters, construction sites, sidewalks -- anyplace where something grabs their attention.

And just how does Anderson turn these dirty, dusty and decrepit found items into furniture that retails for $1,000 and more?

"Well," Anderson said, smiling and shaking his head, "I see things that other people don't."

He pointed to a cast-iron door leaning against a wall in the backyard space he calls his trash pile. "You probably see a door, right? But I see a headboard for a bed. I don't know how I see that. But that's what's in my head when I look at that door -- a headboard."

Anderson made cabinets in Atlanta for about 20 years or so before he got into what he calls "junking."

He sold his recycled designs at flea markets in Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., and Memphis, Tenn., choosing Tuscumbia as a central location after his Atlanta workshop burned a few years ago.

About 10-12 people are involved in the business, including Neal Rogers' mother, Bonita Rogers. She manages the showroom and handles sales. Neal Rogers designed the Web site, fuzzotfurniture.net, which brings in much of their business along with the sales and contacts they make at flea markets.

Whether because of the environmental satisfaction of using reclaimed wood, the historical benefit of preserving pieces of American architecture or simply the fun of owning one-of-a-kind furniture, Anderson and the rest of the Fuzzot crew barely can keep up with demand.

In fact, Neal Rogers said, sometimes the business gets bombarded with at least two months of orders at once.

"With future apprentices, time, word of mouth and effort we will eventually quit playing catch up," he said in an e-mail. "We use this wood because it's America's finest, yet there are trash cans full of it and landfills all over the country that are crushing it so our society can stay up to modern building standards. We just want to make furniture so we can keep it here for at least 100 more years. This is our investment in the nation's recycling effort, with an artistic one-of-a-kind twist."

Fuzzot Furniture is for sale to retail shoppers at HomeSource Warehouse, 1904 Webster St., Muscle Shoals; and McCorkle's Interiors 322 N. Court St.; and Xtravagance by Susan, 1605 Darby Drive, both in Florence.

Cathy Wood Myers can be reached at 740-5733 or cathy.myers@timesdaily.com.