Archive for the ‘flea market’ Category

Fare thee well, Shelf

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

A moment of overly dramatic silence please.

————-

Thank you.

BAM! We took the shelf down.

Well, not just down, but booted it out of the house for good. Which means this bad boy is gone FOREVER. It’s off to a better place, a place full of wonder and magic that will appreciate and love it for all its shelfy glory.

Iggy, lurker Gary and The Boy took it apart in about twenty minutes after I struggled to undo it by myself for about a day. Having many hands is a good tip to know if you happen to build one of these and eventually need to take it apart or sell it on Craigslist (which seems to be happening pretty frequently). Go team Coors Light.

Like a disheveled prom queen after a bender, this thing looks busted up.

In reality it’s just in pieces piled in with the rest of Emily Henderson’s giant array of swag from the Rose Bowl. Don’t worry, I gave them a picture to sort out how it all goes back together.

Hey! It’s Team Emily – Chris, Orlando and Emily as well as a super sweet fan who wanted her picture taken with the dream team. Sorry for horning in on your moment with my iPhone.

Nicer folks you do not know. Emily is adorable and has the shopping endurance of a seasoned pro, Chris and Orlando are fantastic and ever so helpful.

So, the shelf will be installed in Emily’s new ‘studio’ set on her soon to premiere show Secrets From a Stylist (February 26th home slice!). How excited are you guys for this show? Me? I’m very excited. Trust me, it is going to blow your mind into little design chunks.

In other words, it’s good. Real good.

Now I just need to figure out what’s next for that open wall space in the living room…

FILED UNDER: flea market

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Rose Bowl Flea

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

On Sunday I headed out to Los Angeles to hit up the Rose Bowl Flea Market. It was a mash up of a day consisting of getting into girl reporter mode for a freelance gig, enjoying the company of super person and super deal hunter Sharon Montrose, as well as dropping off a very special piece of furniture (more on that later).

It was packed.

And hot.

And PACKED.

These might be my two favorite signs of the day. The latter possessing that special mix of condescending misogyny and humor that makes me giggle and then depressed.

I hate that I am currently searching (pretty hardcore) for a pair of mounted moose antlers to hang above the fireplace. I’ve been obsessing about them since seeing a great pair a the Long Beach Flea. I know, I sicken myself. These were the only pair I saw and they were far from ideal.

Super obsessing over these Mies Van Der Rohe for Stendig dining chairs. Obsessed to the max. I tongue kiss them them. Also, obsessed with vintage camera lenses. This is like a table full of heaven.

OK, maybe these were my favorite signs of the day. This ugly table is from “Hollywood!”

Wow. I’m not really sure who is impressed with that proclamation seeing that we are in Pasadena and most of Hollywood proper is a dump. It’s so vague, yet so enthusiastic, yet in such bad taste.

Speaking of, I was very enthusiastic about this painting since it pretty much resembles The Boy with his shirt off. The price (on a sticky note – $150) discretely hid his junk. Considering how wacky and out of proportion the rest of his anatomy was, it probably is best that there was a tidbit of mystery left to the imagination.

At the time I was not so into this giant lucite bench/sofa…but now…I kind of can’t get it out of my head. I have the perfect spot for it in the living room.

Loved this little table base and imagined it with a giant slab of round marble perched on top. The  best part was the gentle curve of the legs, it has that sort of slightly Danish mixed with a drop of Moroccan vibe I can slide right into. Tasty.

Also, there was something about these weirdo chairs that I dug. They were so strange and awkward, but I feel like the house they would fit into would be full of cocktails and caftans and key parties. I could dig it.

The Rose Bowl was a bit of a bust on the buying front. I showed tons of restraint and bought nothing. Shocker, right? I think I was so consumed with working and thoughts of the giant vintage explosion + lack of space at home that I couldn’t imagine adding one more thing to the pile. There is only so much hoarding I can do and keep my dignity – until I lost it all and immediately came home and bought stuff off Craigslist. Maybe the Rose Bowl just wasn’t that great this weekend.

Did you guys go? What did you think about the selection?

FILED UNDER: flea market, furniture, travel

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Flea!

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

I headed out of the desert into the wilds of Los Angeles on Saturday night and ended up crashing a party at Gregory and Emily’s sweet pad with all the Apartment Therapy LA folks. Thanks guys for letting me drink your booze and go through your stuff. I also got to check out the progress at Laure’s new pad – which is looking posh, even without a sofa.

Afterward, I headed to Bianca’s crib to crash for the night and get up fresh and early for shopping madness at the Long Beach Flea Market.

It was a sweetly perfect morning in LA, so of course we immediately left town for the heat and long ticket lines of Long Beach.

I picked up my buddies Danny and Mel since they love hunting for deals. Ah! What? Maybe that’s Erica and Bianca back there. Aren’t we wacky girls? I want to punch us too, don’t worry.

Flea markets start super early in the morning, but since we are not bright or chipper early risers, I think we rolled in solidly around 10am. Shockingly, it was PACKED. Much more attended than I’ve seen in a few years. Sweaty and poorly prepared, we made our way into the hordes.

OK, so the following things are for the swank bachelor pad I imagined with my mad flea marketing skills (and crappy iphone pictures).

This fantastic painting inspires it all.

The bachelor guy I imagine would own this painting (that he picked up at a garage sale) because it reminded him of his old dog “Hulkster”. He’s a sort of sloppy “dude”. Friendly, a bit distracted, likes to pretend he surfs but really doesn’t, you know, aimless but cute. Maybe he ran into a little money through some accident caused by LADWP or something. I don’t know, he’s mellow, doesn’t like to talk about it.

Firstly, he needs a ginormous slab coffee table for $400 to stack beers on and old magazines.

Maybe a comfy chesterfield for playing video games and macking with ladies. Only $275 if I recall…

Perhaps, an upholstered ottoman for $30 to kick his feet up on and a giant moose rack mounted above the fireplace to show off his manliness to visitors. I think this 59″ spread was $600 and the seller told me that all antlers are shed yearly, which was a fun moose fact I didn’t know. The things you learn at the flea. Now I kind of want some moose antlers.

A graphically awesome Mexican rug from Oaxaca for $80. (I almost bought this, like seriously considered ponying up the cash. I balked since I secretly only wanted to spend $60)

Then a nice slate blue wing back and ottoman that my dude would pretend to read books on to impress ladies. He think it makes him look like an intellectual. What a dummy.

Of course, some sort of boob-like pendant lights, a steep $75 for the pair. Then this fun just sort of fizzles from there…

I could dig that room. Looks comfy.

Anyhow. What did I actually take home?

This really beat up chair that needs major reupholstering and a giant geometric ceramic planter. Not too exciting. I’m guessing this revelation is a bit of a downer. I was hoping for more deals, but like all deal hunting, it just wasn’t meant to be.

The person who really scored was Bianca. I’m going to take all the credit for spotting awesome things she has been looking for and somehow making them magically cheap. Well, I guess I didn’t really make them cheap, but I swear my thrifty senses were tingling.

FILED UNDER: flea market, furniture

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