Jeff Frye and Rob Langloss both work as realtors in the Des Moines area, but antiques are their genuine passion, and that passion led them to open Weathervane Vintage on the southeast corner of Howard and Walnut streets in downtown Colfax, Iowa. Before setting up their own storefront, the pair ran a booth at the well-known Brass Armadillo antique mall in Des Moines, but were eventually drawn to Colfax by a vacant storefront in the historic Cross Building and by encouragement from their friend and retail neighbor Julia Kern, owner of nearby Spring City Vintage.
At 1 West Howard Street, the shop specializes in a good variety of antique, vintage, primitive, rustic, and repurposed items, giving it a broad but curated identity built around genuinely reworked and reimagined pieces rather than only untouched originals. If a specific item isn’t currently on the floor, Jeff and Rob have said they’re happy to help track it down for a customer, treating the shop as much as a personal sourcing service as a straightforward retail stop. The shop also carries Milkhouse Candles, a line made locally within Iowa, giving visitors a made-in-state gift option alongside the antique and vintage inventory.
What distinguishes Weathervane Vintage most is its limited, intentional operating schedule. The shop opens on the second Friday and Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with additional Tuesday evening hours from 5 to 8 p.m. added starting in January 2022, and further hours available by appointment or simply by chance if Jeff and Rob happen to be in the store setting up new inventory. That kind of limited-weekend model is common among small-town Iowa antique shops run by owners who hold other full-time jobs, and it has helped Weathervane build a following of regulars who plan their visits specifically around the shop’s open dates, following the business’s Facebook page for schedule updates and playful event names like Slushy Saturday.
Colfax’s small downtown, anchored by Main Street businesses like Weathervane and Spring City Vintage nearby, has embraced the shop as part of a broader small-town antiquing identity, with the local Main Street organization specifically spotlighting Jeff and Rob’s business and its Des Moines-area customer draw. The owners have said they enjoy the storefront specifically because it lets them meet new people and learn where their found and repurposed pieces end up, a personal connection that larger, anonymous antique malls rarely offer.
For anyone in the greater Des Moines area looking for a genuinely personal, community-rooted vintage shopping experience in a classic small Iowa town, Weathervane Vintage offers exactly that on its limited but loyally followed monthly schedule. Weathervane Vintage is a realtor-owned antique, vintage, and repurposed goods shop in downtown Colfax, Iowa, run by Jeff Frye and Rob Langloss and open on a limited monthly schedule centered around the second Friday and Saturday of each month.
