Don't Cry for Me, Furniture Addicts...

Oh, Dear Readers…DID YOU MISS ME?!? The truth is, I never left you….Au contraire, I’ve been hard at work preparing for the next phase of my furniture addiction. Yes, it’s finally happening….The hunting and gathering of vintage treasures, the late-night dumpster diving, the endless Craigslist cruisings, all have led up to this inevitable point-in-time: the establishment of “As Luck Would Have It” -- THE SHOP!

As I confided in a previous post, the passion of my addiction has been focused on the hope and dream of having some type of storefront, virtual or otherwise, for displaying (and perhaps even selling!) the objects of my desire. And, thanks to Furniture Redo Diva Blanca, an unexpected opportunity was presented that is making the dream a reality.

Diva Blanca introduced me to a lovely and energetic lady named Won who is opening a new home décor mall in Manassas, Virginia. This new venture, “Home Store”, will feature a number of vintage and antique dealers, along with Won’s own stunning collection of imported furniture and locally acquired antiques. This is not your average antique-and-collectibles mall. While we furniture addicts can appreciate the attraction of such entities, Won’s vision for Home Store is even more appealing: a destination for professional decorators and collectors alike, offering a wide selection of high-quality new, vintage, and antique furnishings, all in a fresh and inviting shopping atmosphere.

Indeed, the space occupied by Home Store is so open and light-filled that visitors will immediately feel as if they are in an expansive Manhattan designer showroom. Won’s extensive background in high-end home furnishings is evident not only in the design of the Home Store space, but also in her meticulously selected collection of décor which she has brought in to complement the offerings of the vendors chosen to embark on this great adventure with her – including yours truly!

Yesterday, BFF Richard and I endured a treacherous trip to Manassas to deliver the carefully edited portion of my collection to the space I’m occupying in Home Store. Although forewarned about the snowstorm headed for the DC-metro area, we were not quite prepared for the insane conditions encountered on the route to Manassas. Richard arrived at my home right on schedule, at 8 AM, and proceeded to help me bring down the few items from The Mezzanine (ie, my attic) that had not yet made it to The Warehouse (ie, my self-storage room). We then proceeded to the storage facility and the awaiting moving van, which we filled with the Chosen Ones in record speed.

Although the snow had commenced only an hour before setting off on the road to Manassas, our route on major thoroughfares was already covered in snow. Richard The Brave agreed to drive the 16-foot behemoth while I took the wheel of my trusty Passat (which was also laden with items destined for The Shop). Immediately confronted with icy conditions and resultant accidents, I proceeded at an old-lady pace to our destination.

Arriving an hour and a half later (and a few minutes behind Richard, who somehow managed to pass me along the way!), we rushed to unload the truck and the Passat in the unrelenting snow. Sending Richard on his way to return the truck, I proceeded to undertake the daunting task of merchandising my allotted 9x12 foot Home Store space. I was most fortunate to have negotiated a prime location in the Home Store – the front window space, with the wrap stand directly behind me.

After much deliberation, the resulting display can be seen in this video. Although I haven't quite finished the display (I still need to merchandise the 'smalls', or all the knick-knacks....I was anxious to get home before dark!), I was so pleased how the space turned out, very much as I had envisioned! There are two themes, or stories: Gold/cream/black “Wild Things”, and silver/black “Rocker Chic”. The overall impression I try to convey is that vintage furnishings can blend seamlessly with contemporary items to represent an individual’s unique tastes. As you’re viewing the video, look for these representative items from my collection (some of which you’ll recognize from previous posts!):

From the Wild Things collection:

• Handpainted mirrored screen:  A recent find from C&T, this substantial piece has a distinctive French flair.  With stylized eagles and gold-painted trim, each panel is solid wood (and it weighs a ton!).
• White Tiger Chair:  as described in a previous post, this is a restyled 1920s vintage chair.  Very Joan Crawford, don’t you think?
• Cream Faux-Leather Tuxedo Chair:  With its brass nailhead trim, a very handsome piece that positively screams FABULOCITY!, especially in how it so perfectly complements the mirrored screen.
• Striped velvet Victorian Parlor Chairs, and an early-1900s Writing Desk:  acquired in Capital Hill.

And, from the Rocker Chic collection:

• Moderne Armchair and the Console/Game Table:  Surely you haven’t forgotten their respective backgrounds!
• Folding Wooden Table:  Recall that this is the piece I started restyling as part of my 'furniture repair and refinishing' class....Well, its extreme makeover is finally complete!
• Wooden Edwardian Armchair:  You might not recognize this one – a most fortuitous find from a neighborhood Exchange night months ago.  Just look at it now, as restyled in blue and silver geometric patterned velvet and metallic pewter paint (my design perfectly executed by Diva Blanca!)

Do enjoy your virtual shopping tour, Dear Readers….And I will be sure to alert you to the Home Store’s grand opening, as well as all upcoming receptions and special events.  Looking forward to seeing you in the As Luck Would Have It shop!

I kept my promise....Don't keep your distance....!

Flea Bitten -- The Video Game

Attending the DC Big Flea is like throwing gasoline on the fires of a Furniture Addict's passion. And BFF Diana The Lady D, being the consummate enabler, is more than happy to fuel the flames whenever the opportunity arises!

Such was the case when she encouraged me to join her in Chantilly Virginia for the quarterly Flea held on January 9-10.  For this Flea, both buildings of the Dulles Expo Center were packed with vendors and their followers.  The heady mix of furnishings and collectibles sent the throngs into a glorious Vintage Vertigo collective!

This was one of the best attended shows in recent memory.  In typical form, The Lady D arrived before the doors opened.  Even I managed to pull into the already crowded parking area within 20 minutes of the first addicts' entry into the cavernous South Building.

Once inside, I quickly located Diana as she perused a case full of vintage compacts.  We then proceeded to flitter hither and yon, absorbing as much of the extravaganza as possible.  Below check out our latest video production, documenting our romp among the relics:  (Note:  As I edited the video, I discovered that I need to study my Thesaurus to improve my arsenal of adjectives.  I think my  overuse of exclamatories would make for a fine drinking game....May I suggest selecting your finest vino/beer/soda, and proceed as prescribed below:

• For every "WONDERFUL!" or  "FABULOUS!" I mutter in the video, take one drink;
• For every "STUNNING!", take two drinks;
• "ICONIC!" earns you three drinks.

Remember....Unlike when shopping for vintage treasures, you should demonstrate responsibility and restraint when drinking!)

Postette: Silver Jubilee

Blanca, my Furniture Redo Diva, struck gold -- or in this case, silver!

Recall from a long ago post the amazing console/game/dining table purchased at Class and Trash, the table with the exquisitely carved cabriole legs and perfectly intact ball and claw feet, and which expanded expanded expanded? Well, after much deliberation I was inspired to commission Diva Blanca (who, BTW, was recommended by the lovely Lisa of C&T fame) to do a dramatic makeover: refinish the top in a lustrous semi-gloss black, and the base in metallic silver.

And the result…TAH DAH! Sterling FABULOCITY!

Good Thrift Hunting

Thank GAWD that whole Christmas shopping nightmare is over! Although I admit to being the inveterate shopper, I do not enjoy being anywhere near a retail establishment during the weeks/days/hours leading up to The Event. However, I’m also the inveterate procrastinator, so I am doomed annually to join the hoi polloi in the seasonal rite of time passage I know as Holiday Hell.

But, once it’s over, watch out baby! No, I’m not one of those insane people that descend upon Macy’s at Oh-Dark-Thirty on December 26 to dig through the detritus of Christmas Past. Au contraire, on the days immediately following the day, I retreat to the sanctuary of my home to let the healing begin. It is not until almost a solid week has passed that I feel it is sufficiently safe to venture out into the post-apocalyptic world that remains once the aforementioned crazed throngs have exhausted themselves in a Christmas Clearance crescendo.

And so, refreshed from a few days of rejuvenating rest and relaxation, the time came to emerge into the daylight (albeit here in the Washington DC area, bone-numbing COLD daylight). I had convinced BFF Chris that we deserved a full day of shopping, Howard-style, which meant an exhaustive – and exhausting -- crawl through my fave local thrift stores! Check out the video of our adventures at Yesterday’s Rose (for “Half-off EVERYTHING Day”!) and Joseph’s Coat (where everything was also half- off!) OMG OMG OMG!

Chair-ished Friends

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, I was knee-deep in the middle of my traditional wait-til-the-last-minute-to-wrap-EVERYTHING routine. Of course, I was wired from caffeine overdose, HGTV was on in the background, and the kitties were in hiding so that they might avoid being hit by flying wrapping paper remnants. FA. LA. LA.

BFFs Sharona and Richard had phoned to ask if they could stop by. “Sure, if you don’t mind a frenzy of holiday madness!” At least they couldn’t say they hadn’t been warned. I would not be responsible for any collateral damage.

Soon there was a rapping at the door. In my holiday finest (completely disheveled in baggy sweats), I threw open the door to the sight of not Sharona and Richard, but a Martha Washington-style chair that I had last seen at Class and Trash weeks prior! While I was still dumbfounded by this unexpected vision, Sharona and Richard jumped out with hails of “Surprise!” and “Merry Christmas!”. Turns out, Richard remembered that I had become enamored with the MW chair when he and I had traveled to C&T for the Big Haul . When I had forgotten to claim the lovely piece in the midst of my standard bout of Vintage Vertigo, Richard had arranged with C&T owners Lisa and Kenny to hold the chair til he could travel back to Richmond to claim it as a holiday present for me. (Both he and Sharona insist they had decided to buy me this most thoughtful gift before we had all agreed not to exchange presents….I’ve chosen to believe them on this point, since I’m thrilled to have the chair!)

The chair is truly quite lovely. Of traditional lines, it is sturdy and in fine shape structurally. Although the fabric is a bit worn, the wood is unscarred. Nevermind about the upholstery, however; already the chair is planned to be restyled in some otherworldly combination of fabrics that will most assuredly send it into the couture décor stratosphere!

The chair currently resides in my boudoir, in the space formerly occupied by the pre-restyled 1970s-vintage moderne chair. Kitty Daisy has already claimed it as her own. However, being a stylish girl, when the time comes for the restyling I’m sure she’ll sacrifice her latest perch in the name of FABULOCITY!

Thanks for the (Christmas) Memories

In all honesty, the Christmas holiday season is not my fave time of year.  I don’t like crowds, traffic sends me over the edge, and I despise cold weather.  (As you can imagine, the blizzard the Washington DC metro area received this weekend did nothing to help my holiday anxiety.) As a child, I tended to be sick every Christmas day.  My former career was in retail management and buying.  All combined, I do not do very well this time of year.  And don’t get me started about Christmas carols…. 

Anyone who has read just one posting of this Blog knows that I love decorating and shopping.  But not during the holidays.  Just say “NO NO NO” to the “HO HO HO”.  That’s not to say that I don’t have a section of the attic devoted to Christmas décor, just that everything tends to stay boxed up, year after year. 

One of the few exceptions to this is the small collection of ornaments handed down to me by my maternal grandmother, Mary.  I lived with my grandparents as a child, and one of the few family traditions was the yearly display of Christmas ornaments my grandmother had acquired when my mother and aunt were children.   Each Christmas, my grandmother would assemble the silver aluminum pom-pom tree and decorate it with a set of glass balls of a single color, alternating between beautiful shiny blue and bright pink.  Then there was the rotating color wheel, slowly projecting blue/yellow/red/green light on the metallic tree.  Pure holiday FABULOCITY. 

We would also have an evergreen tree, real or feaux, decorated with an assortment of ‘five-and-dime’ ornaments.  Among these were the spherical cage-like hollow balls containing ‘angel hair’ -- my absolute favorite!  I truly believed that they contained the fine white hair of actual angels, and I always looked forward to unearthing these from the cardboard boxes in which all the ornaments were stored.

But the most treasured of treasures was the nativity set.  Also purchased at the local five-and-dime for mere pennies, each piece was crafted of chalk and painted in vibrant colors.  There was, of course, the baby Jesus, along with four livestock animals: cow, donkey, sheep, and camel.  Even as a child, I found it fitting that only the animals were in attendance at our manger scene.

Purchased in the 1940s, only a handful of these treasures have successfully weathered the ensuing decades.  Somehow many of the ornaments of my childhood were broken or lost.  I consider myself fortunate to have several of the delicate solid blue glass balls, along with a red one with “Season’s Greetings” painted in white, and a blue globe with white stars.  And, even two of the angel hair-filled pieces are among my collection.  Except now, as I behold these globes many years after my grandmother’s passing, I recall the fine silver hair of my own guardian angel Mary.

The nativity set also survived, except the donkey is MIA and the cow lost an ear at some point.  A few years ago, during one of my DC Big Flea excursions with BFF Diana, I came across a vendor who was offering a mishmash of similar nativity pieces.  I learned that these chalkware items were very popular in the first half of the twentieth century, and were made by Italian and German immigrants.  Apparently, some of the later pieces were also made in Japan.  Carefully sifting through this vendor’s offerings, I selected several pieces that I thought would fit well into my treasured nativity:  an angel to watch over the baby Jesus; three wisemen to accompany the camel; and a Mary and Joseph pair.  These pieces of unknown history have now melded seamlessly into the nativity of my childhood, and the entire set is among the few holiday decorations I faithfully display each and every year.

So enamored was I of my grandmother’s set, this collection of the most modest of nativities, that I recall once telling her that it was the only thing I wished for her to bequeath to me.  I am blessed that I have these precious items to commemorate the childhood spent with my loving and caring grandparents.  However, as treasured as these ornaments are to me, I am most grateful for all the memories they invoke, for that past is my forever Christmas present.  And each year, at the close of the holiday season, I carefully wrap each jewel so that it might survive to be displayed another season. 

A few Christmases ago, I labeled the boxes containing this treasure with the names of my godsons.  Inside the boxes were notes addressed to the boys, explaining the heritage of these items, and instructing them to remember me and my family as the boys might someday display the ornaments as part of their own families’ holiday traditions.  Let this be my forever Christmas present to them.

China Syndrome

What’s a furniture addict to do when the all available storage runneth over?  In my case, I redirect my acquisition urges toward items that are considerably easier to warehouse:  tableware, knick-knacks, pictures, and all sorts of tschotskes.   The possibilities are endless in this category of vintage décor!

In my previous post , I let my Dear Readers in on the secret of the glorious thrift store Yesterday’s Rose.  On the Monday following my first visit there, which had resulted in the discovery of several lovely (and bulky) pieces of vintage furniture (now occupying valuable real estate in The Warehouse), I returned to transport the silk-covered Baker loveseat.  As previously mentioned, that day also happened to be “1/2 Off Everything Day”!  What a coincidence!

Considering that the loveseat required almost every square centimeter of space in the Passat’s cargo area, there were limits to what I could acquire on my second visit.  Fortunately, the Rose had a rather extensive offering of dishes and glassware.  Having perused the stacks of breakables the previous Saturday with BFF Diana the Lady D, there were a few items that I was hoping to locate once again among the piles.  However, there was one treasure first and foremost in my mind for this excursion:  a set of eleven china plates by Royal Albert.

Weeks prior to my foray into the treasure-filled cavern that is Yesterday’s Rose, Lady D emailed me to express her glee over finding a beautiful china plate during one of her Rose trips.  She dubbed the item “The Faux Oyster Plate” because its bold yet delicate pattern reminded her of plates designed for such a function.  Although there had been a complete set of twelve of these exquisite dishes, Diana had chosen to purchase only one (convinced that she has an innate propensity to break things, she was fearful of being responsible for a whole dozen of china plates!).  Nonetheless, on her many follow-on trips to the Rose, she faithfully stopped by the case in which they were displayed to ensure no one else had acquired the remaining eleven.

What made these plates especially intriguing was the hint of their history indicated by a handwritten note attached to Lady D’s single dish.  Carefully written in a delicate script on a piece of tape placed on the plate’s surface was the statement, “Debbie, from Cowell & Hubbard…Very Expensive”.  Diana, the consummate Internet researcher, pulled this thread and discovered that Cowell and Hubbard was a jewelry store located in Cleveland, Ohio.  According to The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History ,

Cowell and Hubbard Co . is Cleveland's oldest jewelry store. The firm started in 1861 when Geo. Cowell and his son, Herbert, took control of the silversmith shop of Royal Cowles, which had opened in 1849 under the Weddell House at Superior Ave. and Bank (W. 6th) St. H. Cowell & Co. sold clocks, watches, silverware, lamps, fine jewelry, and notions.

Obviously, the previous owner of these delightful and delicate dishes desired that “Debbie” be fully aware that these plates had an extraordinary pedigree.  (Luckily, “Debbie” apparently couldn’t have cared less, and the Royal Albert plates ended up in a thrift store!)

The Lady D then set out to determine the plates’ vintage.  Sleuthing through the vast information store of the Internet, she came upon the definitive source for all things Royal Albert: www.royalalbertpatterns.com.  Here, she determined that the plates’ backstamp indicated that they were manufactured 1927-1935 (apparently a particularly prolific period for the Royal Albert Company!).

When Diana and I visited Yesterday’s Rose on that fateful Saturday in November, the remaining eleven Royal Albert plates still resided in their place of honor in the glass case near the shop’s entrance.  However, recognizing that a mere two days later the dishes would be included in the “1/2 Off Everything” event, I decided to tempt fate and wait until I returned to transport the Baker loveseat before purchasing them.  (You see, as desirous as I was to possess these fine plates, the fruit would be that much sweeter if I could get them at an even more remarkable low price!  Vintage shopping is multi-faceted endeavor.)

As I approached the Rose on “1/2 Off Monday” to retrieve the loveseat, I was guided tthough the cold rain by my determination to embrace the Royal Albert plates before they were claimed by some other less-deserving shopper.  But, because my trip to the Fairfax shop had been delayed by a long-standing doctor appointment (which I’d been sorely tempted to cancel), would the dishes still be available?  Walking (well, running, really) into the Rose I breathlessly approached the glass case….Yes Yes YES! the plates – ALL ELEVEN OF THEM – were still there!  Oh Fates, blessed Fates!  I immediately engaged the gentleman behind the counter and, after confirming that the dishes were included in the day’s sale event, I proceeded to carefully examine each one for damage.  I was delighted that all were in pristine condition, and instructed the clerk to consider them sold.

After ensuring my treasure was appropriately set aside for me, I proceeded to rummage through the piles of dishes precariously stacked on the open shelves on the shop’s selling floor.  And I was rewarded for my diligence:  added to my Royal Albert purchase were a 1953 calendar and zodiac plate by Homer Laughlin ; a 1950s-vintage plate with a stylized floral pattern in light blue and gold; and a set of three dinner plate with a large Mod daisy design in the center of each.  Each of these finds could serve as stunning wall hangings, especially the daisy plates when presented as a trio.

There was one near-disastrous moment:  having completed my transaction (with the Goth-Girl clerk manning the register), I attempted to place the box full of newfound bounty into the shopping cart for transport to the awaiting Passat.  !  My hand slipped, and the carton slammed into the bottom of the cart.  I was convinced that I had cracked at least a few of the treasured Royal Albert china plates.  However, upon my inspection back home, it was revealed that all items had survived my moment of clutziness.  I had miraculously evaded Lady D’s curse! 

Now, Diana and I are in negotiations regarding how The Eleven are to be divided; she insists that she should hand over her single plate in order to keep the set intact (and to escape their impending doom that being in her possession ensures).  I, however, contend that the vintage wealth should be distributed, and a set of eight would suffice for me.  Indeed, disposition of the dozen is a task best suited for King Soloman.