The Estate of Things

This architectural salvage store that I went to to is so beautiful. I used to long for a store like this to pick up items for my home in NC.

I’m going to be tragic and say that I can’t relate to the aesthetic anymore (its not meant for this sunny Santa Monica apartment), but that’s kinda silly. However, that yearning half of me does long for rusty old metals, weathered woods and items with layers of history peeling off at the corners. I won’t have it anytime soon. Not until someone takes me away from this place, pays off my mountains of debts, and plops me on a mountain where I belong.

The store is located just by the 405 on Olympic and Sawtelle…. It’s definitely worth checking out.

After coming home empty handed from our weekend flea market jaunt, I turned to Ebay and began searching for my friend Kristine’s living & dining rooms (posted about here) and a little for myself of course.  Thought I’d share some things I’m watching, thinking you might find them appealing as well.

Click on the image to link to the auction.

super fabulous brass & glass coffee table

This huge vintage table cloth or tapestry would look pretty great framed and placed in a teenage girl’s room or a tween’s room. Your thoughts?

dynamite pair of upholstered x base stools

On our TEOT field trip to the Rose Bowl flea market in Pasadena we saw…

beautiful kilims, Betsy wanted one of these

A little architectural salvage, place a pair over the sofa in the living room or in the dining room

I think it really goes without saying…but everyone needs a life size unicorn

vintage metal garden chairs, similar to the chair sold at Terrain

these would be incredible in a kid’s room provided it was a pretty sizable space, also don’t miss the rhino wall hanging on the right side of the frame

the focus here was on the vintage school pull down map BUT on further inspection of this photo I noticed the round bamboo table and instantly thought it would make a great bar

everyone loves grain sack pillows

beautiful gilded wheat table

vintage metal laboratory storage in mint condition, perfect for an office

Betsy spent a while considering this antique heater, it was the perfect color blue and the perfect petite size for her balcony. After several minutes, she couldn’t pull the trigger.

collections of things

Its been a busy couple of days as the Indiana project nears completion.  I have to make sure that I have all of the materials in place for the different sub-contractors that are there now finishing up. On Monday I drove a big Ford Super Duty truck to a city an hour away to visit the granite wholesaler in person. My goal was to bring my own granite slab back to avoid waiting on it to be delivered.  I failed, the folks in the warehouse said it was far too dangerous for me to haul it myself even though I borrowed the stone fabricators A-frame.  

I’ve been running around a lot balancing my real job with finishing this project.  I’m sorry for the scant posting, things will pick back up soon.

I did manage to squeeze in a visit to Karen’s Attic recently to help my friend Amanda in her search for all sorts of furniture.

While I was there I snapped a few pictures and sent them to her.

Vintage school lockers, great for storage in her son’s room 

A surfboard to mount on the wall in her son’s room and yes that is a fish tail in the right of the frame. That tail belongs to a pretty amazing looking swordfish. How awesome would that be mounted over a sofa!?!

a candidate for a breakfast area table, paint it white!

There were a few things of note at the flea market this past weekend.

This play kitchen from the 1970s, made from birch plywood was pretty beat up but definitely salvageable. The guy was asking $40 for all three pieces, I think he would’ve negotiated further. After surveying it closely and talking about refurbishing, I walked. It was ultimately a space issue.

My Mom was eyeing this owl and then the vendor told her he would take $900.00 for it. Enough said.

The airplane would be fantastic hanging or just on display in a boy’s room.

My Mom bought six of the orange knobs for a rainy day.

I thought about scooping this coffee table if it was a steal. It would look really fabulous painted white. It was not a deal. The vendor informed us that it was a Kittinger table and the top was solid mahogany. He said he would take $295.00. So that was a no go too. During a brief search, I found that Kittinger has been making hand crafted furniture since the 1800s.

I just love the color of jadeite.

Ione Skye’s home featured in Domino a couple of years ago has always been one of my favorites. So laid back modern and so California.

When I saw this vintage Morrocan rug at Sweetshorn Vintage, the pillows on Skye’s sofa popped in to my head again.

 Is that spot on or what?

Such a sweet find Alia! This rug screams California bohemian. Buy it here before I do.

We are fans of music poster art! I love to pick through gigposters.com looking for inspiring imagery. You can imagine my glee walking through the aisles of the SXSW Flatstock sale.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the Avett Brothers posters of my dreams.

Yesterday I stopped by my favorite consignment store, Karen’s Attic. If you live within driving distance of Karen’s Attic and you haven’t stopped in, I would have to ask why and then I would insist that you go there.

I was thumbing through some artwork at Karen’s and pulled this out…

It was such a good score for $6.00.

Bryn admired it and thought about using it in a black bedroom.

And it was spotted in a nook in the recent issue of Lonny

In addition to the owl print, I also couldn’t resist this little pair of brass doves/partridges,

There are so many fantastic finds at Karen’s, it deserves its own post coming… tomorrow.

Karen’s Attic is located at 5689 US Hwy-1 Southern Pines, NC 28387.  Call Karen at the store at 910-693-8008.

I’m very happy to be blogging from Austin, TX this week! I’m here for SXSW with work. I snuck down a couple days early to hang with one of my favorites, Bregan, the Austinite crafter extraordinaire (see her work at TheLeadChandelier). She took me to a Citywide Garage Sale here on Sunday. We saw tons of fun stuff at the conglomerate sale. Here’s some pics from various sellers…

I purchased some old drawer pulls from The Vintage Laundry. They looked like they once belonged on a library card catalog. I also heavily debated a vintage Vera tablecloth (that I would’ve surely stretched to hang as artwork) but I walked away without it. The Vintage Laundry has a website, blog and etsy shop. I do hope you’ll check her out.

Big thanks to Bregan & Charles for putting me up all week while I’m here discovering great music. This city really suits me!!

Traveling to the flea market at the NC Fairgrounds in Raleigh on Saturday yielded these,

a set of 4 Thonet chairs for children, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these yet because I don’t really have room for 4!

The purchase power fizzled out after that but we did meet a friendly vendor named Gene Foust. One of the pieces Gene had was this lovely antique glider. It was $50.00.

Gene specializes in antique gliders and he restores them. Gene has a permanent space at Lot #421. If you’re in the market for an old glider contact Gene about what he’s got in stock, he can be reached at 336-327-9309.

A lot of records were thumbed through…

And we saw some Pollack-esque paintings