Wild Wild West-nofa

We're not really in the market for more furniture, but thanks to my updates from The Listings List, we have found another gem.  (Thanks A LOT, Aleysa! :P)  We saw the add below and the chair looked suspiciously familiar...

Some of you may recall the Siesta Chairs we purchased for the new/old house, which were designed by Ingmar Relling for Westnofa.  Finding these chairs was such a treat and they were listed at $295, which was still a steal!

Still, when we saw the brown leather Westnofa chairs listed for just $25 each, we decided to check them out.  We can always sell the black ones again and let someone else enjoy them.  We checked right away to ensure they were authentic, since there are so many knock-offs circulating.  Immediately, Corey found the stickers.

The chairs were in very good condition (one with arms and one without that resembled our black chairs) with the exception of some wear in the leather and a little spot of white paint on the arm chair.

Here's a closer look:

Not wanting to damage the leather, I gently scratched off as much paint as I could.

Then I dabbed it very carefully with a cloth soaked in some mild soap suds, which removed any traces of white immediately, but left me with a troubling dark spot.

It scared me a little because the leather looked damaged in that area and the spot was pretty obvious.

Luckily, some TLC (aka leather conditioner) made it disappear.  We also conditioned the wood, which was pretty dry and dull...

And now we have two gorgeous brown chairs in the living room.  I had actually always wanted chairs this colour.

We may sell the black ones or we may keep them for the family room since they're seriously the most comfortable chairs ever!

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Craigslist Window Shopping - Toronto

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you already know about my love of Craigslist and you've probably read about some of the treasures I've found in the past.  Most recently, Aleysa, who writes a great blog called The Listings List helped me find a couple of fabulous Westnofa chairs for our living room.

Now that we have a shortage of space, as well as renovations and a wedding to pay for, my only Craigslist shopping is window shopping (and perhaps vicarious shopping through you guys) so I've put together a list of things I would buy if I could.  I've also included photos of how I might spruce them up because we already have so many vintage items around the new/old house that it's starting to look like mid-century overload!

I hope you enjoy this round-up.  It's been a busy week and this little bit of fantasy shopping has really helped me to unwind!  Please promise that if you do find something great or buy one of these items that you'll share so that I can drool over it with you! ;)

Check out these cute mid-century lamps.

They'd look great painted gold, or with a faux malachite treatment like this:

I love these Scandanavian chairs!  Seriously, I want them!

But, if they're too bland for you, a little paint could make them look like this technicolour Thonet chair.l

I'm always a sucker for a retro loveseat.

I'd show the legs some TLC and have it covered in royal blue velvet, like so!

This retro director's chair looked pretty familiar...

... Because we own two, which we covered in cowhide before we moved into the condo.  Thanks to the talented Thea Menagh for the picture!

I'm always tempted when I see a padded Eames Shell Chair.

I'd look for another because they look so striking in a mismatched pair.

Okay, hear me out: I actually think this wicker hanging chair has real potential and I'm holding myself back from making the seller an offer.

Look how chic a similar chair looks in this living room, styled by Emily Henderson!

Nothing spectacular here, but this dining set is a good price at $180.

And this modern white sofa could look cool in a loft space.

You guys know how much I love a good industrial pendant light...

They always look fabulous in a modern kitchen!

What are you doing this weekend?  Is there any shopping on the agenda?

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Craigslist Score: Number Four!

Why have I been slacking so badly with my blogging lately?  Well, I mentioned in an earlier post that the renos are starting to seem less like fun, and more like work.  To maintain our sanity, we've been taking some time off (not from our real jobs, just from the home renos) but I think we're getting our second wind and I think I'll have some things ready to show you in the next week!

Now, let's talk about that funky chrome lamp in the top photo.  It's sort of Sputnik-style and it was ultra cool in our old pad.  It was (obviously) another Craigslist find from back before we moved into the condo.  I've zoomed in on the picture so you can get a sense of what it looked like after our initial touch-ups.

 

You see, when we first saw it on Craigslist, it was practically brown with rust and dirt.  The guy who was selling it lived in Liberty Village and was moving and said it was bulky to move.  We ended up paying a small fraction of what it was worth.

When we got it home, Corey tightened the connection, updated the wiring and we polished it with Blue Magic and steel wool (thanks to reading an article by my cousin Chris from styleNorth) until our fingers hurt.  The end result was worthwhile since we received many compliments on our vintage lamp over the years.

As we were prepping to move, we also found that the lamp was too bulky and a little too "out there" to bring to our new/old house.  While we didn't know if the lamp was actually designer (we couldn't find anything like it online) the trumpet shades reminded us of some of the Reggiani fixtures we found online:

Here's a closer look:

 

What do you think?  Well, like the previous owner, we just didn't want to move it so we took it to a consignment store that specifically deals with vintage furniture.  Because we were getting a share (60%) of the sale price, we trusted the shop owner (who would keep 40%) to sell it for as much as possible.  Could we have done better selling it online?  Perhaps, but we were running out of time and I was worried it would break during our move.

 

Anyway, I had almost forgotten about it when we received a cheque in the mail the other day.  Cha-ching!  It wasn't a huge amount, but it is "found money" and we've decided to put it (combined with some cash housewarming presents from our lovely moms... Thanks Trudy and Beth!) towards something that we really want for the house... and ourselves.  We opted to buy something that will make our lives easier (... and maybe just a little bit happier) on a daily basis.

 

Here's a list of some of the items we considered:

 

1.  A new stove for the kitchen.  Our current model grosses me out and, although I know it's clean, it never seems to look like it's clean.  It sort of makes me hate cooking.

 

2.  A dishwasher.  Do I really need to elaborate on this point?  Corey and I have been spoiled and we work such long days that it really is a chore to handwash dishes after every meal.  Combined with our lack of counter space for drying, the dishes situation makes me want to pull my hair out.

 

3.  A mini makeover for the laundry room.  We have some lovely new laundry machines, but I would love some shelving and a new laundry sink so that the room feels organized and clean.  It would make me feel good to finish a small room.

 

4.  Doors for our closet.  We're so close to finishing our closet but we need sliding doors to finish the project.

 



5.  A vanity for the bathroom with some storage.  Oh, how I would love this!  We are so lacking in storage and a vanity with an actual drawer would go a long way towards reducing our my stress.

6.  Plumbing fixtures for our clawfoot tub.  We bought a beautiful old clawfoot for the upstairs bathroom and I would love to relax in a nice hot bath with a glass of wine and a book.  I think even Corey would get on board if we purchased a nice rain shower head for him like the one we installed at the condo...

We have a pretty good idea of what we'll end up doing.  Which would you choose?

Pssst... For other Craigslist Scores, read this, this or this!

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What's the Longest Thing in our Condo?

If you're reading this post because you think the title sounds like the beginning of a dirty joke, you can stop now.  No, I'm not referring to anything that belongs on a different type of website. ;) ... I was actually referring to our new, comically large mirror.

One of my best Craigslist secrets has always been to buy something unique (even if it's a little ridiculous) if the price is right.  That's how we ended up with the church pew (which was free if we could carry it... although the joke was nearly on us, since the thing is quite heavy!) and that turned out to be one of our favourite statement pieces of furniture.  Okay, maybe "statement" isn't the right word; I'm not exactly sure what "statement" it makes, but we're pretty sure it's not religious since one of us is Jewish and the other, a non-practicing Catholic.  Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I like a good deal and I love furniture that stands out.  That's how we ended up with a church pew, tons of smoked lucite, a bright orange chair, and now we can add to that, a comically large mirror.  "How big is it?" you ask.  Well, when this mirror sits around the house, IT REALLY SITS AROUND THE HOUSE!  But seriously, it's 93 inches long!

I've always liked the way an oversized mirror can make a small space seem more open.  The mirror pictured above is the beautiful Maxx Floor Mirror from Crate and Barrel.  While I love it, I just can't justify paying over $800 for it.  Most large mirrors cost over $300 but I've been keeping my eye out for something cheap since we really don't have any mirrors in the new house.  When this one appeared for $25, I pounced!

We drove to pick this up a couple of nights ago and it wasn't until we arrived and met the seller, that I started to get nervous.  He eyed our tiny Sentra and asked if that was the car we were planning on taking the mirror home in.  We said we hoped to take it home right away and that's when he reminded me how tall it was.  I suppose I had seen the listing and, in my haste to respond before someone else could snap up the cheap mirror, I forgot to notice the dimensions.  The seller explained that he found the mirror to be too large for his SUV!  Corey rolled his eyes as we brought it downstairs to try to squeeze into our tiny car.  Neither of them thought we could do it... Challenge accepted!

Well, we may have had to remove my headrest and drive home with our necks tilted to opposite sides, but we managed to squeeze it in.  Here's Corey posing with our giant mirror.

Note: This probably isn't something I'd want to try again soon.  At one point during the drive, I asked Corey if he thought the mirror would decapitate us if we were in an accident.  "Probably," he replied.  We drove slowly.

He's actually less happy about the whole ordeal than he looks to be in these pictures.  He thought I was pretty insane not to check the measurements.  He was right, of course but since the mirror did fit, I got to gloat a bit on the way home.

On the way home, Corey started to worry (along with all the safety concerns I mentioned above) about what would happen if it didn't fit in the house.  He's worried that the ceilings weren't high enough and his concern isn't unreasonable, considering the mirror is roughly half the width of our house!

I tried to convince him that we could always slap a fresh coat of paint on the mirror and flip it on Craigslist.  I had already planned to advertise it as the Mirror of Erised (for all the Harry Potter fans out there) and I was going to take a picture of us standing in front of the mirror and then photoshop jewels and tiaras onto our reflections.  I thought it was a pretty good plan.

Luckily, it fit in the condo.  This gave us some hope that we can make it work in the house.

What do you think?  That's the actual height, by the way:  it is actually resting on the floor in the picture.  I think that with some paint, it will be a great addition to our next home.  What's the longest thing in YOUR home?  Wait, that sounded wrong.

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