apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Yes....then that friend starts tweaking every weekend and your friendship goes bust and your fab hand painted dining table, cute red leather sofa and your 50's cowboy lamp are LONG GONE!

Been there......done that!

Wow--I guess I do this, I just never thought about it in these terms. My weakness--OK, one of my weaknesses--is art and handcrafted accessories--vessels and such. I can only display so many things in my 1BR condo so I spread the love. (Well, "spread" may be overstating it. My sister once told me, only half-jokingly, "Well, at least when you die, the family won't be fighting over your art.")
It pleases my aesthetically correct friends and when something comes back, I fall in love all over again.

Nice plan. I've thought of it myself but none of my friends share my style.

With anything that expensive, I would only consider housing it with family. As marcspice points out, just because you're friendly today doesn't mean things won't change. Also, if something happens to your possessions accidentally while in a friend's hands, I'm thinking the friendshp is likely to change as well. IMHO, the rule about lending large amounts of money to a friend (really, really bad idea) is equally applicable to lending expensive (or extremely valued, personally) furniture.

For something cheap, where you can stand it getting a bit mussed up (or even destroyed), no problem. Makes perfect sense. A definite win-win.

I do this with my painter friends from art school ALL THE TIME. my right-out-of-college walls were covered in beautiful original canvases that the artists simply had sitting around. the deal is, if they sell the piece, they can take it off my wall no questions asked, but until then (and it hasn't happened but once, actually) I have great art!

That's not an Eames lounge chair, it's a Plycraft or Selig knock-off. Nice, but only worth about a quarter or less what the Eames chair is worth. Eames chairs have boxed covers on the armrests with welt along the upper and lower edges. They also don't have any visible bolts or screws on the plywood but I can't see this in your photo. You can check, though.

This should make your friend more comfortable about lending it out, if nothing else!

Oops, never mind, I see your friend already knows that she has a knock-off and not an Eames original.

My friend and I have done this for years. It has worked out well because we are both very cautious with our items. She will soon be getting some vintage garden furniture that she will enjoy until we finally score a vacation home.

Lol, I have to disagree that it's safer to lend to family than friends-- I trust my friends with my stuff (after all, I choose my friends) FAR more than I trust my family! Family is not necessarily a more enduring bond than friendship, especially when money is involved.

Guess it depends upon your friends and your family, eh marie516? Hee, hee. At least in my family, I'd only lend to my parents. But you're point is well taken. Sometimes friends are more trustworthy than family. It all depends upon the situation.

the public library in indianapolis where i grew up would let you borrow art to take home. i always thought that was so neat.

That is a fantastic idea. Too bad I don't have any friends with coveted pieces. I would love to own that same Eames set, only in a dark leather. Mmm-mmm good!

Laura
http://www.grafxnerd.net

I store furniture with friends and family all the time. It's really a win/win situation.

Yet another reason why design-savvy friends are a must.

I've lent an 8 piece set of vintage patio furniture and my husband's grandmother's antique bed to friends. At the time, I had no room for them and my friends had a desperate, yet temporary, need. Since the loan had a natural end, and the furniture would return, it worked out great for all involved.

I don't like to give stuff back.

How do I convince my stylish friends to move and put their furniture in storage (with me)? How? Time to send out some faux job offers... cruel, yes, but one must suffer for beauty.

Hard fact: Treat the chair as a loan. Treat the tables as a gift.

In other words, you will be honorable and return the chair when friend A wants it back. You will cherish it and treat it well, and return it in better condition than that in which it arrived.

You will be pleasantly surprised if friend B returns the tables, and even more pleasantly surprised if they are in decent shape.

Just the way of the world.

My mom has done this with my stuff after I upgraded to my first house. We got a lot of hand me downs that just didnt fit, and she happened to upgrade at the same time too and wanted my pieces to "fill-in" in her new place. I don't need anything to just "fill-in" since this being my first house, I'm content with the emptiness and blank slate of it all. :)

Only downside I can see is when a friend redecorates and then loans your furniture to a friend - and this will go on and on until you will never find that furniture again. It's the perfect recipe for ending a friendship.

If you want to redecorate and you can't store them with your family (who is probably trustworthy), then you're better off trying to sell it.

that pillow is adorable. Where is it from?

I wish you luck.

That adage "neither a borrower nor a lender be" is wise because of real life experiences.

I don't even borrow books any more. I did once, another friend spilled a cup of coffee on the book, and I had to replace it (being a responsible person) at rather high cost -- it was an expensive art book -- back when I was barely able to pay rent on my teensy studio apartment. Bad situation, especially since the coffee spilling friend was NOT the responsible type.

Things happen.

Ahhh I agree with Sherry, I won't even lend my books anymore because they invariably come back damaged. Do you want to be responsible for even the normal wear that a chair would endure over time?

We were the temporary storage for a friends stuff, because we bought a house and had a basement. Many years later she bought a vacation home and did not want her stuff back at all, which meant i had sacrificed space in my house for years for nothing. I then had to get rid of some very, crappy heavy pieces that no one wanted. Joy