Green Men Restoration Celebrates New Design Center and Gallery Grand Opening

Writer  /  Jon Shoulders

Photographer  /  Michael Thierwechter

If you ask Chris Wall, owner and founder of Green Men Restoration, about the new art gallery at the home renovation company’s new facility on 54th Street, he’ll tell you it’s all part of an effort to bring clients, and the community at large, together.

Founded in 2011, Green Men Restoration is a licensed general contracting company and certified renovator specializing in older home renovation in the Broad Ripple and Meridian Kessler areas of Indy. The company specializes in complete restoration and remodeling, interior and exterior painting and staining, trim and wood replacement, flooring, drywall installation, deck refinishing and more.

“We do all kinds of residential structures, but the older homes are our bread and butter,” Wall says. “We do kitchen remodels and bath remodels too. As a certified renovator, we can deal with things like lead-based paint and asbestos, and we’re able to educate people on how those types of things should be handled and dealt with.”

Earlier this year Wall and his staff relocated their headquarters to East 54th Street and began kicking around the idea of building out a gallery in the front room of the Green Men facility to feature local artwork. A painter and woodwork artist in his own right, Wall felt having a gallery would be a way to showcase art and décor ideas for home renovation clients while promoting local art at the same time. The company held an official grand opening on October 27.

“We really want it to be a community involvement type of thing,” he says. “We also have our Green Men carpentry and woodwork station in the back. We want to do different art events here like first Friday events, using our parking lot area and the space we have.”

Visitors can find paintings, sculptures, decorative carpentry pieces and even musical instruments in the gallery space, as well as a portfolio of Green Men Restoration’s past home projects.

Wall is currently in the planning stages to make the Green Men facility home to the next SubSurface event, which began in 2002 as a networking and showcase event for graffiti artists in the Indy area and was cancelled in 2016. He hopes to revive interest in the event and bring artists together for a collaborative mural around the outside of the Green Men building.

“We want to truly make this an artist space,” Wall says. “We have our Green Men workspace towards the back, and we’ll continue to serve customers and their houses, but we also want to do anything we can to help lift up the community and help artists out,” he says.

Wall adds that art sale proceeds go entirely to the artists themselves and operational costs for the gallery.

“It’s not about us, it’s about keeping the doors open and giving artists exposure,” he says. “Hopefully, as we continue to build out the front of the building with the artwork, we’re going to continue spreading the word and making the community aware of what we’re doing. We want people to know there’s a place they can come to buy artwork from $3 to $2,000, and all the money from the gallery goes towards the artists and the gallery itself.”

Green Men Restoration Design Center and Gallery is located at 2376 East 54th Street. For more details on company services and art exhibition opportunities, call 317-339-0213 or visit greenmenrestoration.com.