apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

$3000 citron yellow murano glass chandelier marked down to $200.00.

It now hangs in my pale turquoise guestroom and looks ultra chic.

I...kind of want that dog. It's cute. :')

cool giant tiki face handcarved out of a split log. free from a dumpster!

I love the dog too!

My impulse buy was a child's daybed....I could not find a mattress that would fit and made one out of a futon, foam and a turkey carving knife!

I was at a flea market in Pau Pau, Michigan when I noticed an oddly familiar office chair amidst a lot of not-so-cool stuff.

I walked up, my heart racing, and casually asked the seller how much she wanted for the office chair.

When she told me the price, I forced myself to respond with a simple, "Uh... okay." I paid and ran it to my car.

That's how I found an original Eames high back Aluminum Group chair. For 5-bucks.

A solid chestnut, perfect size little mid-century writing desk for $4.00 at a garage sale. It took about an hour to strip it, and rub it down with some Danish oil, and it's the absolute perfect thing that I wanted. It was a deal so good, I almost felt guilty!

A pewter (or at least it looks like pewter) candle stand, tall enough to sit on the floor and be table-height... free from a dumpster. Someone had thrown it away because the bolt connecting the two parts was loose, which took approximately two minutes to fix.

Where did you find the dog? He looks better trained than mine.....

A five dollar telephone chair that I had to beg my husband to let me have. I had to give up another chair in the house in order to get it. After replacing the fabric and padding on the sit, it looks perfect in our bedroom and I love it.
Here is a pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/degerkas/2434369799/

Super old, super cool typewriter desk (1920s), technically "free" but i had to fill up the tank to drive 75 miles to pick it up.

Lovely http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/painting-fixing-repair/sf-good-questions-how-do-i-darken-my-oak-desk-043950

...A vintage Emeco aluminum chair for $5. I was on the highway and did a quick u-turn to go back for it!

- The hood ornament from a 1930s Packard (a sort of art deco superhero figure with his arms thrown back), which the owner of the antique store gave to me gratis because the base was broken.

- Rusted out 1940s pedal car, $20 from the salvage yard

- early 1960s gold-rimmed cocktail glasses featuring pictures of PIRATES(!), picked up for $1 each at the thrift store

- 1970s modernist waiting room armchairs, solid wood with mustard vinyl upholstery, salvaged from work when they were upgrading, now looking very smart on my patio.

A Danish-style chest of drawer, at a Knights of Columbus flea market. I was visiting my family and forgot this sale was on, so I popped in for an hour on the last day. It was only 35 buck. They even delivered it for free to my grandmother's house! It cost me more that it's price to have it shipped back home :)

Here it is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allabouteve/2027176311/in/set-72157600297829837/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allabouteve/2218084648/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allabouteve/2217290505/in/photostream/

I am also totally in love with this Expo 67 ashtray that I picked up at a garage sale for 15 cents!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allabouteve/394329809/in/set-72157603181516930/

Picked up a George Nelson, Herman Miller desk for $35 at a thrift store. Best find yet!

Pounced on a section of a library card catalog for $40 a while back. I plan to have a base on castors made for it to hold my appliances (there's only one outlet in my dining area and none in the kitchen so this is important) and add a marble or granite top to it for extra work surface.

We were just looking for a salad bowl at the Crate and Barrell outlet in Woburn, MA (now closed, sadly) and saw a big Big Sur table for $150 (it sells for close to $1700) and it just had a small scratch and a few watermarks. We weren't in the market for a new table, but we had to have it. It's a little big for our current place but we love it!

I (uncharacteristically) ventured out to look at two "vintage pharmacy lamps" for sale on Craigslist. I fumbled all over my wallet when the man wanted $20 for this perfect pair of white 3-arm Jielde lamps. One of them had kid's stickers on the arm. *LOOOOOOOOVE*

A few years ago, I scored a pair of Heywood-Wakefield club chairs at my local charity thrift store. Both chairs for 30 bucks. I almost wet my pants.

In 2003, just a week before I moved into my first little own place, I went to a flea market with my sister, where I found cute white bistro cutlery, a jugendstil villeroy-boch salt pig and a great mid century sugar bowl with a bright orange lid just for 15 bugs all together.

Eric D M....Soooooo Jealous! I daydream about that happening all the time.

Hot Pink Mohair Chesterfield Sofa for $250. Which I turned around and sold (supposedly) to the dude who directed the Lord Of The Rings films (prop?) for $1250. His assistant handled everything. I used the profit to buy a matching set of chocolate brown velvet chesterfield couches. Yay!

here's the pink mohair chesterfield:

http://renovationtherapy.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/i-am-possibly-selling-the-pink-chesterfield/


here's the chocolate brown velvet chesterfields:

http://renovationtherapy.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/as-of-friday-i-will-own-five-couches/

I love chesterfields...but not so much leather ones...

TCMB - I know, I couldn't believe it! And then I got them home and was all conflicted... do I keep them, or do I sell them and use the money to take a fantastic trip to like Belize or something?

I totally kept them.

Okay, not something anyone would find valuable but me, but...at a Salvation Army in NYC I located a poster from 1988 to advertise the London Tube system designed with the Tate Gallery. I don't think its particularly rare, but I got it for five dollars already framed and it looks so beautiful in my apartment.

The other intersting thing was a 1952 TV in beautiful condition with its guts missing for $40 bucks...it makes excellent yarn storage.

I got a Yellow Eames fiberglass shell chair (it is the armless version and has casters on the bottom) at a local thriftstore for $10 I think. I know it is an original from the sticker on the bottom, but I can't find another one like it online. (no arms, swivel base, fabric seat (not vinyl)) maybe someone can help. Also, any advice for getting an oil-based stain out of the seat - I can't afford to have someone else do it. (It's not that old of a stain - it's my fault)

It looks like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29787790@N02/2786997025/

This is the label on the bottom:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29787790@N02/2787851446/in/photostream/


I also got a Saarinen/Knoll Executive chair for free at a church rummage sale (mine is all black vinyl, seat as well as arms and back). There are two rips in the arms but I will fix them with black vinyl repair stuff (not bad for free). I didn't need another chair but I just couldn't resist.

I would have kept them too :)

Four - 4 - Bertoia Diamond chairs at a yard sale for $100 !!