vintage — Page 34

Frugal Decorating: The Living Room

November 26, 2011 at 9:41 am by Claudia

It’s no secret that I like vintage. I’m drawn to previously loved items. They have a story to tell.

I’m also fairly frugal when it comes to furnishing my home. This frugality comes partly out of necessity but also out of a strong sense that I can get what I want for much, much less than I would at a big box store and that it will have much more style and personality to boot.

I thought, as Brenda and I explore living in a small space, I would occasionally highlight a room in my house and its mostly frugally obtained contents. Today, the living room.

Okay. Starting in the lower left and corner:

Red chair: Snagged in an antique mall in San Diego around 13 years ago. I was drawn to it because it reminded me of a chair my grandparents had in their den. Cost? $50.

Green table: You can see it peeking out between the chair and the loveseat. Chippy green paint and pretty lines – found it in an antique shop in a neighboring town about 8 years ago. Cost? $30. I probably overpaid for it.

Loveseat: My first piece of furniture for my Cambridge apartment oh-so-many-years-ago. I think I paid $400 for it. I’ve had it for at least 21 years. It’s lived all over the country. Underneath the slip cover are dark gray cushions that have seen a lot of wear. Slipcovers are a wonderful thing – this particular one changes the look of the loveseat from slightly boring to vintage. When you calculate how many years I’ve had it and the cost, it has paid for itself many times over.

Coffee table: Our friend cut this down and refinished it for a client who ended up deciding against it. We bought it from him for $75.

Rugs: Both rugs are from Lowe’s. Can’t remember the exact price, but they were around $80 each on sale.

Wicker rocker: Purchased at an antique mall – cost? $60.

Sideboard: Don and I bought this when we first moved in together. That means we’ve had it for 16 years. It’s heavy, made of tiger oak and gorgeous. I’m not sure on this one but I think it was around $150.

Large white cabinet: Huge, lots of storage inside, beautiful and snagged for $100 at auction.

Blue bench (next to cabinet): Found in a little antique store – lots of beautiful patina and chippy paint. Cost? $40.

Yellow chair: This is the only piece that we paid full price for. We bought it a few years back for $800. Yikes. We needed another chair and couldn’t find one that was comfy enough. It’s really well-made and will last a long, long time. A rare purchase for us.

White table: Free. It used to be a prop in the Boston University prop space. I grabbed it for my office at BU. Somehow it made its way to my apartment. I’ve had it for about 21 years. I painted it about 2 years ago.

Piano: Free. I inherited it from my grandmother.

Forgot the lab stool (by the chimney in this photo): Found it at a local antique store for $25. It functions as a table and as a way to reach the pot lights in the kitchen as well as the top of the cupboards.

Also forgot the lamps: The floor lamp by the loveseat was on sale at Pottery Barn. Can’t remember the price – bought it many years ago in San Diego. The parakeet lamp on the sideboard was a birthday present. The vintage floor lamp by the piano was about $50 – again, bought many years ago in San Diego.

I also hang on to my furniture for a long time. I don’t decorate according to ‘trends’ or ‘what’s hot’ at the moment. I choose things I love and that suit my style and that will stand the test of time. And even if I could afford one, I would never have a decorator. Too much money for someone else’s input and/or style. Not for me.

Isn’t finding a previously loved piece a wonderful thing? And getting a bargain to boot?

Have a great Saturday. It’s sunny here and the temperature is supposed to be in the low 60’s. Yippee!

The Painting

November 16, 2011 at 9:38 am by Claudia

Do you have some special something you’d grab if there was, God forbid, a fire or flood in your home? I have several. Heaven knows if I’d be together enough to think of any of them in a moment of panic. But I do know that I would be yanking this off the wall:

For those of you who are newer readers of this blog, a couple of years ago I was working in San Diego for an extended period of six months. I often visited my favorite shop: Vignettes. This painting was hanging behind the counter. I’d seen it for the first time the year before and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Over the course of several months, I visited it; rather like paying homage at a shrine. I’d stand there, pretending to look at something else, while I was really stealing glances at the painting. Eventually, when I realized how transparent I was, I started talking about it to Lori, the owner of Vignettes. The price was more than I had ever paid for a piece of art. It really wasn’t all that much, just a lot for us. Our modest income forces us to be extremely frugal.

Lori called the dealer, who was willing to give me a bit of a discount. She wrote down the price on a business card. I still have it.

Still, I couldn’t imagine actually buying it.

But I loved this cherub painting that had come to Vignettes all the way from France. Sometimes we see something that touches us deep in our core and no amount of rational thinking will change the fact that we are in love – in love with something that brings us joy. You know that feeling? Well, I had it.

Eventually, I took a picture of it. I had it on my computer desktop. I pondered. I was afraid to tell Don of my need for this piece. Would he scoff? Would he not get it?

I finally emailed the photo to him. And then, fairly sure that he wasn’t a fan of cherubs, I haltingly tried to explain my passion for these cherubs. And my love for the pale aqua of the frame. And the price.

After being away from my family and home for 6 months, perhaps I felt I deserved a treat. Bless his heart, he understood.

Sigh of relief. Still not absolutely sure I would buy it, I trotted off to Vignettes. There it was. No one had stolen it away from me. Then Lori saw me and said that she had been thinking of me, especially since a customer had come to the shop, bought the painting and was having it wrapped up when, at the last minute, he changed his mind. She said all she could think about as the painting was taken down off the wall was how upset I would be.

That did it. The universe was telling me to buy it. I wouldn’t be so lucky a second time.

It hangs in our bedroom. It’s inspired the choice of the pale aqua coverlet on the bed.

Which brings me to our bedroom. The bedroom needs work. We have several pieces of furniture that need to be painted. That’s a project I want to tackle soon. I’d like to try chalk paint but it’s so darned expensive. Anyway, I want the color to be inspired by the colors of this painting. I’d love any suggestions you might have, especially from those of you who have used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. If I use it, I can only afford one color, so it has to be the right choice.

Any ideas?

Vintage Books

September 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm by Claudia

Greetings from the water-logged Northeast. The rain keeps on coming. I do spy a bit of sun at the moment, so fingers are crossed. It’s been so bad here for the past 2 months that there is a patch of our front lawn that I still haven’t been able to mow. Because it is at the bottom of our little hill, all the moisture seems to collect there. It has yet to dry out from the hurricane, much less our most recent rains.

I seem to be featuring the den lately. This little vignette sits atop my music cabinet just to the left of the stairs. Before we go any further, say hello to Monty:

How could you not love that face?

But this post is about books. To the left, you will see some vintage books.

I’ve found a few well-loved vintage books that I treasure. I don’t buy them just to buy them. I know many of you buy them for crafting purposes or for display. Try as I might, I simply cannot take a book apart and use it’s pages for something else. I’ve done it with sheet music, but that’s as far as I can go. Books are living things to me and I just can’t do it. Must be genetic.

If I buy a vintage book, it is because I love the author and it has meaning to me. That book on the left, Lyrics and Love, is full of beautiful poetry about house and home and is in near perfect condition. A Girl of the Limberlost is a favorite from childhood; I have two copies and this particular one is the oldest. Claudia has obvious meaning and was given to me by my friend Spencer. And the Jeeves books are favorites of ours – Don has played Jeeves onstage. If you have never read Wodehouse, you are missing out on some of the funniest characters ever written. You will laugh out loud.

This vintage book is priceless to me because my grandmother gave it to my great-aunt Rhoda for Christmas in 1912. Rhoda died a few short years later, a victim of the flu epidemic. The pages are so fragile that I rarely open this book. This is the color illustration inside the front cover:

And this book, equally dear, was presented to my grandmother in 1904 as a prize. She had memorized the most bible verses of anyone in her class.

I have some first editions that I love, a signed copy of To Kill a Mockingbird that I keep in a safe place and others that are dear because I’ve read and re-read them so many times.

Oh, and I have this book:

We bought it on our honeymoon. It’s been well-thumbed because it was formerly the property of Grass Valley High School

I pressed some wedding flowers in it.

And a four-leaf clover or two.

And it has some beautiful illustrations:

But I do accumulate more books than I have room for in our tiny cottage. The other day, I was in purge mode. I attacked the bookshelves that are on my side of the bed, ruthlessly pulling out books I knew I would never read and/or consult again.

Our little library has need of books for its shelves and also has a book sale every year. I will be donating these to the cause so that someone else will have the pleasure of reading them.

Long live books! And by that I mean the 3 dimensional kind.

For those of you who participated in my modest little meme, Reality Shot Thursday, my thanks. I loved your posts. I’d like to keep this going for a while and I’d be most appreciative if you’d spread the word. I don’t know about you, but I love shooting a no-pressure-real-life photo. It’s refreshing!

Beverly suggested I link with Pink Saturday since the cover of Alice in Wonderland is pink!

Frugal Decorating: The Living Room

The Painting

Vintage Books

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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