32 | JANUARY 13 • 2022

W

hen Sally Serwer was 6, her
mother, Adeline Steinman,
would take her to antique
shows at Temple Israel. “It was in my
blood very early on,” the interior designer
and antique dealer says.
For more than 40 years, Serwer, 67, of
Bloomfield Hills, has worked in interi-
or design as the owner of Sally Serwer
Designs. She’s also sold items at Berkley’s
Odd Fellows Antiques for 15 years as an
antique dealer, serving clients throughout
Metro Detroit and beyond.
At the forefront of Serwer’s unique style
and taste is an aptitude for classic and vin-
tage pieces, which she aims to incorporate
into any space she decorates.
“I have been known to be a person to use

antiques with all of my designs,” she says.
“Even if it’s a very modern house, I feel like
you need to have new and old to make it
different from everyone else’s.”
Catching what she calls the “retail bug”
from her father, Alvin Steinman, who
owned women’s boutique Alvin’s Bride
with several locations throughout the state,
Serwer combined that passion with her
mother’s love for antiques (another trait she
says was passed down) into her business.
Throughout her career, Serwer began
to collect antiques that she could later sell
to her clients. She assembled a vast collec-
tion that she stored in her garage, turning
antique dealing into a side business that
she could add to her main interior design
business.

“I sold on my own,” Serwer recalls, “and
then I went to the best store in town, Odd
Fellows Antiques.”

INSIDE THE BUSINESS
OF ANTIQUE DEALING
Odd Fellows Antiques is home to some
50 antique dealers. Once a week, Serwer
brings in her latest goods to sell at her
booth, which includes a wide range of
everything from beautiful fine antiques to
flea market finds.
“I’ve got great artwork and furniture,
mid-century chairs, old French chairs,”
she describes. “
A lot of antique dealers
who are there, they specialize in one area,
and I don’t really have a specialty because
I love too many different genres. I have a
gamut for everything.”
While Serwer has perfected the art of

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SALLY SERWER

Interior designer and antique expert Sally Serwer
Interior designer and antique expert Sally Serwer

lifts the curtain behind the trade.
lifts the curtain behind the trade.

Inside the
Antique Business

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Sally
Serwer

business

1960s rare collection
of Abraham Palatnik
lucite animals

Murray Eisner-
signed Woody
Allen print