Archive for the ‘decorating’ Category

Finacial crisis = shopping heaven?

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Being thrifty and a lover of shopping for all things vintage, I tend to *browse* antique shops and DROOL over beautiful things that are typically priced out of my cheap cheap reach.

Not anymore suckers.

Welcome home new coffee table. I love you.

You are perfect with no scratches, dings, funny smells or some other thrift incurred defect. You were handmade near Palm Springs in 1956 and so beautifully cared for. You are the first piece of furniture I’ve ever bought from a antique shop and you are 45″ of gorgeous walnut. You were also marked down 70% and passed my $100 rule.

The economy is assuredly falling apart and antique shops are suffering. The word on the street (well from some chatty old ladies at a antique store I stopped at this weekend) is that collectors should start hitting the local shops and auctions for rare steals.

I’ve adjusted things in the living room to accommodate my new lovely. There is still more work to be done:

*Add book shelves on both sides of fireplace
*Replace yucky mini blinds with custom privacy roller shades for front windows
*Clean fireplace and add aesthetic stacked logs
*Find a solution for a sofa table behind the couch
*Create landing strip
*Front door hardware

My question to other lovers of vintage goodies and decor is this: Are you hunting for deals in this economic crisis or holding tight to extra cash?

FILED UNDER: decorating, living, thrifting

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Decorating!

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

l have a disease called decorator-itis. I’ve been futzing with my interior decor and can NEVER STOP or be happy. But I have made a few significant thrifty contributions.

Below are the dining and living rooms Before…this is what we call slow decorating…

And After…

Yes, it is the ubiquitous Ikea Stockholm Rand rug. Scored for $75 bucks in the as-is section. There are some small spots and I had to beat and vacumn the dirt out of it, but for its size (9 x 12′ !) and awesome graphic punch – it seemed like a great deal. It does kind of make your eyes go all wonky.

SHAZZAMMM! My new baby is this lovely vintage Danish expandable teak table. Found it at a thrift store and had to argue and LIE to get it. I may have used Christmas and dinner and FAMILY and the LORD to finagle this beautiful gem for $150.

Totally worth it for the surfboard shape and great condition. Oh yeah, and the tulip chairs are from the Long Beach Flea Market. I can have a real grown-up dinner party with matching chairs and actual room on the table for eating.

Get ready for some more of the After tour:

The Bertoia diamond chairs were a steal off of Craigslist. $40 a pop. A friend from Los Angeles picked them up and delivered these beautiful bad boys.

I’ve been installing new Ikea ENJE roller shades in the dining room and living room…and I’m still working on it. Eventually those horrible mini blinds will be GONE.

Here are the new roller shades in the dining room instead of the curtains.

Curtains:

Ikea ENJE roller shades:

These little windows are getting the Ikea ENJE roller shades as well. They had to be cut down to size to fit the 22″ width (which I will outline the fabulous: How to cut Enje shades!)

FILED UNDER: after, before, decorating, dining, fireplace, furniture, living, thrifting

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Master Bedroom

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Finally! The master bedroom is starting to look kind of respectable.

I switched out almost all the furniture with things I had lying around the house. The black tallboy dresser is a bit of a departure from the mid century pieces scattered throughout the house. I love the distressed finish with bits of green poking out here and there and the bronze lion head handles. It was a thrift store find with a price tag of $25 that I was unsure at about at first but has really grown on me.

The painting above it was found at the same thrift store – the “Help Center” – and was snagged for $3. SCORE!
This is probably my favorite thrift store painting ever.

The two white faux bamboo Jordon Brown patio chairs are a thrifty find from way back in July that never really had a home. I like them in here, although The Boy tends to use them as a hamper. I’m not sure what it is, he just loves to pile clothes all over the house on all the chairs…maybe its a guy thing. The pillows were a score at the Crate and Barrel outlet at Cabazon. $5 each during the holiday sale – that store was working some awesome deals right before Christmas.

The blanket was a lovely score from 111 Antiques in Palm Springs. It is supposedly a vintage Danish wool throw – but for $32 I don’t care – call it mine.

The bed frame is the Vinstra from Ikea. Shiny, white, clean and very sturdy for…ummm…well at least the beds not just a box spring on the floor anymore. Its a real grown up bed kind of! This is my first bed frame – so I’m pretty stoked. The blue rug (the Hemmet) is also from Ikea. It was in the dining room for awhile but really didn’t work in that space. I think the peacock blue is a nice pop of color in a sea of white black and yellow.

The bed linens are still a bit of an issue. The duvet is the Malou (from Ikea again! I need to change it up a bit, but I’m just so very cheap.) in gray and black. I like them – its just the comforter insert is so bulgy and puffy and won’t lay flat which so bugs my minimalist soul. Plus I kind of hate the gray stripe at the top. The hunt continues for the perfect bed linens.