5.11.2011

The Perfect Chair

This weekend was another great craigslist adventure for Tim and me. I found this rocking chair on craigslist some time last week, and we got to pick it up Saturday. Only $35!!



The other bonus was the lady selling it was incredibly sweet and a huge craigslist fan. If you’ve bought and sold a bunch like I have, it’s always a treat to meet someone who enjoys great finds as much as passing treasures along to other people who will love them.

So, a few details about this rocker - It’s solid wood and wicker, which I wasn’t ever in to before but I love now. The texture is a great addition to our room. It’s painted white, as you can see in the picture, but the paint is old and chipping. It blends right in to the antique pieces we already have, but it’s also really low profile, so its proportions are great with the mid-century seating in the room.

Basically, it’s pretty much perfect and I love it :)

5.03.2011

Living Room Details Roundup

This is going to be a little bit of a catchall for two reasons… 1. I want to show you my living room as a whole and 2. There are a lot of little things I want to point out that don’t make a great post by themselves.

(If you want to see our NEW living room, check it out here!)

Let’s dig in!

The most important thing to point out is how much I love our apartment. It’s beautifully cared for, has amazing vintage architecture, and we have AMAZING landlords. I’ve come to terms with the fact that it’s all down hill after this - I’m spoiled.

The ceilings are about 12 feet with arching on the seam between the walls and ceiling. The great height is matched by all of the sunlight we get through our 4! windows - three of which are bay windows.



We’ve covered several of the things in this room in other posts. Namely: themantle, theottoman, thephilco radio, thetable lamp, theside table, thepaint, andScrabble letter art. Other things of interest…

Couches and chair: We got these through a combination of craigslist and dumb luck. We started our couch search pretty early and took our time to find just the right one. The result was this amazing vintage couch in goldenrod nagahyde. It’s in amazing condition and was only $80!  When we went to pick it up the woman selling it threw in the great mid-century chair we have for free! We were stoked. It seemed the furniture gods were smiling, but little did we know the extent of our sofa destiny - wow that was bad…

The day we got the keys from our friends who were moving out (we miss you Casey and Cody!!!), they told us they hadn’t been able to have Salvation Army take their old couch away. They asked us if we wanted it or could put it out on the curb for trash day. Something looked familiar… yes, this was the exact same model couch we had just bought in a different colors! Sisters reunited! Someday we might reupholster the green one, it’s had a lot of lovin over the years, but for now we’re just happy to have the girls together again. Weird right?



Coffee table and rug: These were both craigslist finds. The coffee table was a splurge for us, but still a deal at $125. The rug is a little small for the room, but for some reason I love the scale of it. I know, cringe - sorry. It’s from West Elm for about $300 usually, but we got it for $40. Just gotta be persistent!



Floor Lamp: This is Tim’s baby. We were looking around at Fun Antiques in Porter Square when Tim fell in love with it. It’s a little more than we would usually spend at $125, but still a decent price. It’s a vintage industrial type lamp and still has the original tag on it! We’ve pointed it up to get more light into the room, plus I think it looks really sculptural that way. Definitely a huge step up from the Target lamp we had before (sorry Target, you know I love you).

Miscellaneous: Keeping our eyes open and walking frequently has led Tim and I to some great finds. For example…



The clock on the mantle was in the trash!  Works and everything - we love it.

A lot of the glass ware on the shelves came in a crate of vases a guy sold me for $1. He was tired since it was the end of the day, and ready to get rid of things. He even threw in the crate. I didn’t keep every thing in the crate, but the stuff that I liked was great.

The little office lamp and bug printed boxes were from Target, and the rest of the chotchkies were from Pier 1, antique stores, or are family hand-me-downs.

Still to do: I know we need curtains, they’re just so expensive most of the time! That combined with my pickiness equals curtain paralysis. We’ll get there, I promise. We’re also looking to add another chair and side table to put between the book shelves. More posts with those changes to come soon!! …hopefully…