Treasure Hunting Tuesday

Gooood Morning! It is a brisk morning in the Carolinas and I am sipping coffee on the couch with my dog. There is a very good chance that I am going to skip my morning exercise routine and just stay here today.  But I love to peruse a little Craigslist, so if you are more motivated than I, here are some great deals you could be picking up TODAY.

*I should also preface this post by telling you I am going through a little Hollywood Regency/ Mid-Century Modern phase right now. I’m pretty sure it is a direct result of “Mad Men” and the fact that this show is FINALLY airing a new season in March.  So some of this might not be your taste, but trust me, Betty Draper would approve!

I'l take breakfast on the lanai

Picture this painted white and sitting on your covered porch like this inspiration photo

via My Home Ideas

I also like the idea of recovering the cushions in something contemporary

via Decor Pad

At $100, you can’t go wrong.

Next, is a piece I am a little obsessed with

Oh. My. Glob.

Do you love it?! I mean, forget all those knick-knacks, and picture a bar…

via ModFruGal

I think this could be such a cool, mod statement piece on a large blank wall.

Another design idea I love is place a loveseat or low sofa at the end of a bed.

via Pinterest

It makes the bed look like it goes on FOREVAH

via Pinterest

So here are some dandy versions to help you acheive this look:

$50 steal! Don't you love all this tufting?

I could see this recovered in a lovely linen or even an outrageous velvet.

Now Buffalo friends, drop everything and email these two sellers

I am swooning!

From the nailhead to the legs to the velvet, I am in LOVE with this couch! Go buy it now!

And how about this tableI know, I know. Doesn’t look like much but check out this inspiration photo

via Pinterest

How about this color palette? Yellow, Black, and White! Divine!

What have you found lately that you’ve transformed?  Are you looking for something in particular- let me know and I’ll start a search!

 

 

Teacher’s Pet

I am a total brown noser.

I love to volunteer in my kids’ classrooms because

A. Little kids are cute and funny

B. I love the smell of the laminating machine

C. I like to help the teachers and make them like me

I do! It’s like a sickness! Regardless of the fact that these teachers are younger than me, I still want to be the teacher’s favorite.  What is UP with that?  I may need therapy.

My twins have the same Kindergarten teacher this year that my son had last year, and we have gotten to be fast friends.  I think Mrs. Lochel (and I call her that, even when I could totally use her first name-seriously, I have authority figure issues) is the bee’s knees. She is exactly who you would want for a kid’s first teacher.

Mrs. Lochel had this swanky peacock chair in her room.  Only recently it wasn’t looking so swanky

scary seat will poke you if you don't fall through it

If it weren’t enough that it fell over often because there was nothing supporting the back of the chair, the seat was completely bustedDon’t ask me why she still had it in her room.,  I have no idea.  I think she loved that silly old chair and was having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that it wasn’t working anymore.

Enter the List of Craig

2 Chairs? What?

These were in great shape, but the black was a little serious for Kindergarten.  And the spray paint job was a little shoddy.  I decided to dress them up

Heyyyya! Peacock Blue on some peacock chairs!

I grabbed those cute cushions at Garden Ridge, and I fell in love with these chairs a little bit.  Brought them in the house just to see…

My coffee table looks like it's floating here

They were kinda cute in here.

But I knew they’d be better in here

Mrs. Lochel AND her assistant, Mrs. Misenheimer have a seat!

The kids all took turns sitting in the new seats

totes adorbs

I feel like this one student was channeling this photo unconsciously

Dewey Decimal in Your Home

There are few things I love more than a library card catalog

via Poetic Home

Something about all those shiny handles, adorable drawers, and gorgeous wood just makes me happy.

I used to love using the card catalog to look up books, too.  Flipping through all the index cards, then using the nubby little pencils and paper scraps to jot down the the Dewey Decimal numbers.  I love the library…

I was so lucky to score a card catalog off the Asheville Craigslist after we moved to our new house.  Hubby thought I was crazy for spending so much of our furniture budget on it, but I LOVED it, and still do

Gorgemous

This baby sits right by my front door and is a perfect catch-all for the incidentals you need when you’re walking out the door

dog leash, sunglasses for you and one THOUSAND friends, whatever

If you haven’t priced out a library card catalog recently, you should know that they are quite expensive. Ones I have seen in antique/consignment stores generally run between $700-$900.  The one above set me back $400 and a tripto Asheville to go pick it up.

So imagine my amazement when I found an ad on the Charlotte Craigslist for not one, but FIVE card catalogs! Priced at only $125 each! I had to check it out.

My friend Kristy and I headed out in her husband’s truck, armed with a dolly, moving blankets, and a few bungee cords.  The card catalogs are being sold by the BBN (click here if you want to learn how to get into heaven), which is an international Christian radio station.  We met a super kind employee at the door who took us back to the room to see the cabinets.  THEY WERE AWESOME! And there were even more than originally advertised.  SEVEN in all! Kristy and I scoped out the smaller cabinets.  Most in the room were around five feet high and at least 60 drawers.  They would have taken a few strong guys and a serious hand truck to get them out.

I would have taken every one of them if I could have.

Ours were more like 15 and 20 drawers.  Lucky for me Kristy had the good sense to ask if they would accept less for our smaller units.  I was nervous about haggling with super religious folk.

Kristy is nervy- in a good way,

The bottom line- $60

Shut the front door!

We paid up and wrestled our two cabinets into the back of the truck with little difficulty, except for the shelf of cassette tapes we knocked down in the process of moving out my card catalog.  And the brief moment when I thought Kristy’s chosen cabinet, the one stacked on top of another cabinet, would fall on us and crush us.

I wish I had taken pics of this field trip, but I do have the finished “after” photo of Kristy’s cabinet

All dressed up and ready for a cocktail

And here is mine, not so dressed up yet

Isn't he adorable?

So now the question is, where should he go, and what purpose should he serve?  Your thoughts?

If you want to see some amazing things to do with these pieces of history/furniture, check out Poetic Home

 

Oh, you tease!!

So, last week I posted about wicker and how the Peacock Chair of the 70′s was makng a comeback

via Secretly Fancy

I don’t really love these, and I have never really looked into how much they are, but it turns out these are kinda expensive if you buy them new

This one retails for $95

for sale on Etsy for $350

So I was excited when I found this pair on the Craig

Love a matching set

The price for these two? $10. Ten. Dollars.

I like ten dollars! (Hi Schwartzes!)

The black was okay, but I had bigger plans for these babies.  Oh, and they are not for me.

Although they are sort of growing on me

Promise to show the big reveal soon!

How about you? Do you like Peacock Chairs?  Ready for them to make a comeback?

TV Console Drama Continues…

After losing the greatest TV console ever this past week, I have become driven to find something new for the television in our living room to live on.  I am not going to buy something impulsively.  I want to wait until I find something I love.

But to force my hand, I sold our current console on Craigslist

good bye small dark console

And I have replacd it temporarily with the campaign chest I found in Buffalo

Whatcha think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am liking the white with the white shelves layered behind it.  This dresser desperately needs a paint job because it is chipping and has a few weird spots on it.  But right now, it is spending the winter indoors. 

What do you think?  Does this piece fit the bill?  Should I be looking for something else?

 

Wicker- Love it or Hate it?

I have noticed a big trend toward wicker, rattan, and all things bamboo lately and I am trying to decide if I like it or not

via DecorPad

I think it could add some texture to a room, but I can’t believe the Peacock Chair is making a come back

via DecorPad

If this is your style, there are plenty of wicker/rattan items on Craigslist.  Here’s a few I found the other day

$50 Etagere

$75 Etagere

Do you like etageres? I can’t tell if I think they’d be cool for staging collections, or if they are actually big dust collectors for chotchkes.  Either way, these are pretty reasonable at $50 and $75 collectively.  Could make a swanky bar for a covered porch or sunroom.

$100 for the pair

I think you need to ignore the cushions here, but focus on the cool wing back shape of these.  I think these would be awesome used like the chairs in this pic

I love this magazine!

Finally, these are a throwback to my childhood

Laura Dean remembers these!

Growing up my sister and I had matching headboards like these! I think they are dramatic against a dark painted wall, but I also like the idea of painting them like this

What are your thoughts?  Are you a wicker lover or a hater?

He Who Hesitates is Lost, or, The One That Got Away

I am a cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t snatch up awesome furniture at a thrift store when you see it.

Last week, I made a trip to my local Habitat for Humanity Restore, just to browse, but also I was looking for a new console to put our TV on in the living room.  As you know, I installed shelves behind the entertainment consoleBut now the console is starting to bother me. It looks a little too contemporary, a little too small.  Maybe I’ve been in this room looking at it a little too long….

So when I found this at the ReStore I was thrilled!

sorry for the crummy cell phone pic

Super cool lines,  awesome handles, and painted white it would be perfection.  The bonus: The piece SPLITS IN TWO! So if this ever didn’t fit the bill as a TV stand, it wouldmake AWESOME bedside tables.   The price tag was a little high for the ReStore- $175.  So I called my Chief Financial Officer (AKA Husband) for the go ahead. Now, those of you who know my husband know that he is a sweet guy with a good sense of humor and excellent IT skills.  He is not, however, a decorator.  In fact if we had it his way we would still be using cinder blocks and plywood as a TV stand.  Pair this with the fact that he is stingy (he would say “frugal”, but I am still a little miffed, so stingy it is) and you know that the conversation went like this:

Him- “No.”

Me- “But I LOVE it!”

Him- “We don’t need it”

Me- “What does ‘need’ have to do with it?”

He won out.  But today I just had to go back and see if it was still available.  It was sold.  But that isn’t the end of the story

The guy who bought it was there and it was none other than…..

Mr. Goodwill Hunting himself!

Rashon Carraway. Bought. My dresser.

Sigh.

The only silver lining I can find to this story is that this super fabulous piece (it is elevated in my head now to the PERFECT piece that I will never be able to top) went to a fellow thrifter and amazing designer who is going to do something fantastic with it.  And I will live vicariously through him on his blog and watch the transformation.  And I got to meet a local celebrity who is super cool in real life.  If you do not already follow Mr. Goodwill Hunting, you should.  Because he hangs out with folks like this

"Oh hi, Nate. How was your weekend?"

 

And he has better pictures of my lost dresser.

Wishlist Fulfilled!

I love an Amazon Wishlist.  First of all, it works like Pinterest for me.  You can browse around and add things that you would not normally buy for yourself, but if you got them as a present they would be awesome.

Am I the only one who would LOVE so many Sharpies?

Secondly,  my husband is terrible with gift giving.  He needs reminders, and a list of ideas is definitely helpful or else I would end up with a giant stuffed lobster (actual gift from him) or other items from the Walmart checkout line.  This year for Christmas, all my gifts from him came straight off my wishlist and I was a happy camper.  Is it romantic? No. But practical? Yes.

This weekend my friends and I went out for dinner and decided we couldn’t stay awake for a late movie (we’re losers, I know)  but we were NOT going home before the kids were in bed.  So we did the next best thing- we wandered the Target.

the "T" is silent

Target without kids is actually so fun.  There’s the Starbucks right when you walk in, the dollar area, the cheap purses and earrings and sunglasses to try on.  But I love to shop the Clearance endcaps. And lo and behold, I found two items that had been on my Amazon wishlist for the past year! Right there in Clearance! Total score!

The first was a “faux” mink throw (I like to say “faux throw”- try it)blanket like this one

oooh! Cozy!

These are seriously so soft.  And I am perpetually cold, so I love the idea of wrapping up in one of these by the fire.  The problem is, even the “faux” mink is $60.  For a blanket. Good thing I found mine for $17.50!!

look who is really using my throw

Second awesome find was an ebelskiver pan!

Ebel-who?

Ebelskivers are delicious filled pancakes.  I have been wanting one to make these for quite some time, but the Williams-Sonoma pan is $40.  Found a Nordic Ware version in Target Clearance for just $13.48! Now we’ll be eating these on Sunday morning

yum!

 

 

Dresser Transformation

My neighbor across the street had a dresser he was getting rid of, and knowing that I collect things with drawers much like hoarders collect cats, he offered it to me. For free!

I told you I was lousy with "before" pics- but here's a stock photo of the exact dresser

I could see why he was getting rid of it.  It was pretty boring- no drawer pulls, lackluster oak. Not a lot of personality.  But my son was needing a larger dresser for his room and I thought that with a coat of paint and some new pulls, I could re-create this bad boy into something fun.

Check it out

Tool Chest Inspiration

I sprayed this down with Krylon’s Cherry Red Gloss spray paint and added long drawer pulls from Ikea.  My handy neighbor who gave me the dresser (Hi, David!) attached casters to the bottom to finish off the look.  I also added some cute scrapbook paper I found in the clearance aisle at Michael’s in the drawers

.19 a sheet!

I am so happy with the way this turned out!

although I am sad that he is a Cowboys fan. Can't win 'em all

Sassy Shelves!

Okay, these were not a Craigslist find, but I did search for a while with no success.  I was inspired by a photo I found on Emily A. Clark’s blog a while back

fom loving.living.small

And what I love about it is the layered look of the shelves behind the entertainment center behind the chairs.  There is so much to look at on this one wall.

So we held a yard sale this fall and I was bound and determined to earn enough to buy 4 Billy bookcases from Ikea to duplicate this look.  And we did! So here’s a look at the before

meh.

Pay no attention to the half assembled shelf trying to make its way into this picture.  I am so impatient that it is virtually impossible for me to take a “before” picture

And here is the splendid “after”

I love the depth this created in the room! I spray painted the backs of the shelves in “Lagoon”, which, although it looks bright blue in these pics, is actually a lovely peacock (I LURRRRVE Peacock!).

Here’s a daytime shot

I am still tweaking what I want to display on each shelf. After Christmas I will be busting out a lot more books.  And there is a new TV stand in our future.  But I am in love with the overall look of this!
Some questions for you, gentle readers:

Do you like the displayed items on the top of the shelves, or should they be empty?  Should the shelves go to  the ceiling?  Do I need two matching chairs, one on each side, or is the one zebra print chair okay?