Retro-Industrial Holiday

By MARK PAGE for the Missoulian
Photos by TOM BAUER of the Missoulian

Justin Armintrout

2280 Greenough Drive

A vise, a shop bag, a faucet and a spigot: not your standard fare for Christmas decorations.
Unless you’re at Justin Armintrout’s house for the holidays.
He uses “elements which singularly by themselves aren’t Christmasy, but when you combine them together, they create a Christmas feel.”
Armintrout’s home at 2280 Greenough Drive is not “modern-industrial” like his decorating theme, but because it is a traditional Cape Cod design, it lends itself to a good juxtaposition of traditional and modern styles.
The exterior will maintain the traditional feel of Christmas, with white lights and a birch wreath, but inside will be decorations unseen at Christmas. His yard won’t be outlandish, though, he said. “You won’t find a blowup snowman.”
“I think it’s more of a reflection of my taste and my style,” Armintrout said. “It’s more masculine, with a use of common elements.”
He wants his house to be a kind of surprise to people, saying that’s the spirit of the holiday.
Armintrout plans to have a shop bag for a stocking, attached to his mantel by a vise, and a Christmas tree mobile. The mobile will replace the traditional tree and will be made out of birch branches and logs, with faucets, knobs and spigots hanging as ornaments.
Armintrout wants to provide “a chance for people to get different ideas, a chance to get exposed to different decoration ideas for the holidays.”
Since he was a boy, the 32-year-old Armintrout has been decorating his homes for Christmas. He said he is a very visual person, and holiday decorating gives him an opportunity to add some color to an otherwise bleak time of year.
“When I bought the house, it really lent itself to decorating for Christmas,” he said.
He said he will probably put about 40 hours’ worth of work into decorating this holiday season.
When not working on his retro-industrial Christmas, Armintrout is executive recruiter for the Grady Group, a human resources consulting firm in the consumer products industry. He has lived on Greenough Drive for about two years, and now lives with partner Peter Kulka, a student at the University of Montana’s College of Technology.
The decorations at his house will go up around Thanksgiving, and won’t come down till after New Year’s.

Mark Page is an intern at the Missoulian and a journalism student at the University of Montana. He can be reached at (406) 523-5240.