IT is not often you enter a shop and find a mannequin with an Osama bin Laden mask wearing a bridal gown.

Especially when, from the outside at least, South Lismore’s Recycled Building Materials shop looks like any old warehouse.

But there’s nothing usual about the inside. It’s a museum of the different and the strange.

Luka (right) and Peter Robertson with ‘Errie’ at the Lismore Recycled Building Materials store.

The shop has been assembled in an artistic way, following an emotional train of thought rather than a logical one.

Nimbin’s Peter Robertson has been in charge of the family business for seven years, helped by his children Luka, 24, Jack, 22, and Rookie, 19.

A single dad for 17 years, and deaf until a cochlear implant changed his life seven years ago, Peter said it was a conscious decision to style the shop as a museum.

“It was always about making it fun and interesting, but we never thought we were going to get such a strong reaction from customers,” he said.

Asked which object had the most interesting story and Mr Robertson pointed to a grand piano.

“It is nearly 200 years old,” he said. “It’s a John Broadwood and Sons made in London. Canberra University may buy it. The piano that was built before this one was apparently given to Beethoven.

“It was brought to Sydney from the UK in 1937. We got it from a local lady who stored it for years.”

There are more enigmatic stories in the shop: “There is one demolisher, he sees an old lady with white hair every time he comes here. He wasn’t drunk but kept asking me whether I could see her.”

“He came back a couple of weeks ago and he said that she’s still here,” Mr Robertson said.

Sadly, the lease on the shop runs out on June 16 and is not being renewed by the building’s owner, meaning it is now in its final weeks.

Mr Robertson said the thousands of antique and second -hand objects would be sold online.

via Weird, wonderful stuff | Lismore News | Local News in Lismore | Northern Star.