Beside Myself

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Beside Myself

I have been working on our new master bedroom in fits and spurts for the last 3 months. As it is a place to retreat at night, I sometimes forget to do much more than make the bed when I wake up, before heading out into the living space of our home.  A while back I found some campaign chests at a thrift store that were in good structural condition, but lacking in any personality (scraped faded black factory paint).  I'd been looking for large bedside tables with storage, as our room is cavernous with vaulted ceilings and more square footage than all of the bedrooms in our previous home combined.  I'm a small house kind of girl, so our expansion has thrown me for a loop.  After considerable hemming and hawing about whether to purchase them (they were a deal) and what color to paint them, I pulled the trigger, choosing a Benjamin Moore's Graystone, with just a bit more green in it than the wall color, Sparrow, and in the same hue as our pale gray bedding.  Now that they are all finished I am wondering what took me so long.

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The One That Got Away

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The One That Got Away

My antique savvy mother-in-law stopped by today after checking out an estate sale in North East Oakland.  She'd spotted an "Eames-Style" mustard yellow upholstered occasional chair in excellent condition and thought it might be pretty valuable, though she didn't know the designer, the paper label under the chair said Knoll. Yup. My reaction: Is it still there and how much were they asking?  It sounded WAY undervalued.  We hopped into her car and by the time we got there it was still sitting in the living room, but no longer available, as they'd decided they should probably get it appraised. I was left wondering why I wasn't hitting estate sales more often. I've been on the bandwagon for a while, but the only real mid century pieces I own are part of my Drexler dining room set. If that's going to change, I'm going to have to be ready to swoop in on a deal like the one that got away today. The website estatesales.net list sales in your area, with item previews. Craigslist also has estate sales listed under furniture and garage sales.  Bring cash and go early.   

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