apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

my head always turns when drive past trash piles outside of peoples' houses, and i've been lucky enough to find some great stuff indeed: lamps, chairs, etc.

however, i've had the most luck on craigslist's Free section-- its like a virtual curb! i've scored 20 years of vintage architecture magazines and National Geographic, vintage topographical maps, and a taxidermied elk and 1/2 a deer!

i wish my current neighborhood was more conducive to curbside treasures, but i think i'm the one throwing out all the gold...

At my old studio apartment, 3 things were found that I still use to this day. One is a basic square mirror, not sure of it's time period but I'm guessing 30-40's probably that I hung as is but finally painted a gloss black about a year ago from it's pale, pale gray/white. The mirrow was found in the free area of the laundry room.

A 17" roughly square piece of green granite that for years searved as part of an isolation pad for my turntable, but now resides next to my stove in the kitchen. It was found leaning up against the dumpster in this same building back in I think 1997-98.

An inexpensive 3 shelf bookcase that I still use, although now it's out on my balcony since I've gotten something better to go in the hall where it resided the past 3 years and again, it was found outside beside the dumpster at, again, that same building. All three finds were found between 1996-2000 when I lived in that building.

i just found a fabulous vinatge dresser that I now use in my kitchen. It was a block from my house on the street... and I dragged it home with the help of a teenage kid - the boyfriend of my friend's kid. I just called my friend and said, I need help getting a pretty dresser home now! I'll pretty much do anything for a fabulous peice ! I sanded it and added glass knobs- it's all wood, which is hard to find these days. muwhaaa!you can see the dresser on the link from my name.

YES! My boyfriend found the Holy Grail on Sunday! We've got two big dogs and their beds were shot. We decided we wanted to reuse the inner bladders that held the stuffing and the soft outer covers because they were completely intact; and we generally try to avoid new purchases if we can remake something we already have. And then the quest for stuffing began. And it was a total disaster. Have you ever priced stuffing or foam pads for two huge dog beds? "It's not cheap" is the short answer. It was going to cost twice as much to re-fill the beds as it would to buy new ones. But we figured something would turn up. AND WHAM! there it was: an outrageous pile of egg crate style mattress covers and plush, squishy memory foam and 2 huge 3" thick sofa seat size foam pads, all sitting next to a residential garbage can awaiting collection. They weren't wet, there was no stench, no stains, no fleas; just your average wear and tear. We threw them in the back of our car and rushed home with our prize find. We were able to pad both of the dog's crates, and give them each a triple layer, OH MY GOD IT'S SO AWESOME, fluffy dog bed of paradise.

I love trash finds.

When I lived in New York I found a steel tanker desk on the street and stood with it for an hour until my friend could meet me to get it home (before the days of mini-van cabs). A few years later Sonrisa opened and started selling them for $1600.

When I was living in Echo Park, I picked up a Galerie du Bac poster of a lithograph exhibition for Picasso, Matisse, Monet and Touluse Lautrec (pardon my spelling) in Paris dated March 20, 1954. It was trash pick up day on March 20, 2004.

used to love dumpster diving back in the day-I lived in a large college town and right after summer break started was the best-especially around dorms, student housing, etc...wouldn't do it now, though.