I was thinking the other day how my home is like a museum of all of my favorite belongings. Isn't it amazing that there are no two homes decorated alike? Each one has the personality of the dweller. I just love this! My home is jam packed with hand me downs, either from my Mom or my sister (interior designer so this stuff is good!!) or things I've bought at garage sales and thrift shops. I'm a scavenger, if you don't know that already about me. A good deal will make my entire day. Maybe two days.
So, I'm going to share with you my most favorite pieces and tell you a little bit about how/where I acquired them and how many cartwheels I did. Just kidding.
This gem of a cabinet I found on Craigslist. Every now and then I come across something on CL that is unique and a bargain and it's like a race to see who grabs it first. This was a bargain at $125 and I have a list of family members who want to own it when/if I ever get tired of it. It looks like it's been airbrushed with a stencil. The colors are fabulous and it gives me extra kitchen cabinet space.
The table in our breakfast nook is over 100 years old. My Mom bought it originally at an antique store and gave it to me 15+ years ago. The corners each have multiple little pin holes which I understand is from the table cloth being pinned down back in the day. We keep it in a perfect square shape with two upholstered turquoise wing back chairs. It has four leaves if we need to stretch it out. I love the chunky legs and center post. They don't make 'em like this anymore!
Next, is my bird house. This sits on a shelf in my dining room. My grand kids love to play with it, putting hot wheels inside the door. I believe my sister bought this from a store in Cave Creek, Arizona called The Town Dump. This shop has since closed, sadly. We have found some great stuff at the Dump!
My Hoosier sits in the dining room as well. It's in beautiful condition, the porcelain is perfect. My Mom gave me this when she was redecorating. Win! The little canister set she also gave me and I love it. You're probably noticing that my home is not the typical farmhouse decor. It's very eclectic and full of color.
I've shown you this glass cabinet before on Facebook. I bought it at Cost Plus World Market just a couple of years ago. I love it, but it's whats inside that I'm crazy about. I've collected these dishes, glassware and serving dishes over the years and most were bought at a thrift store. The Pottery Barn dishes at the bottom I picked up at 6 - 8 different Goodwill stores. I didn't know they actually split the collections among different stores sometimes. I was on a mission that day!
This corner cabinet was in my ex-husbands family for many years. I've lost track of how many times I've stripped it and refinished it. A couple of years ago I got the itch again and I painted the outside this wonderful red and left the inside natural. Dave and I love clocks and so this cabinet holds a bunch of them for us.
One more piece from The Town Dump is this chippy bookcase that we use to display our family photos. All of the nicks and cracks just make it all the more appealing to me!
My Mom picked up this mirror in New Jersey 40+ years ago. She thought it was wood, it was painted and she planned to strip and refinish it. Ends up the detailed strip is not wood, it's a material that's been made in a mold. She refinished it and it's been in our family ever since.
This is a fun one. A friend of Dave's found this table on the side of the road. He picked it up but wasn't sure what he was going to do with it. Dave saw it and had to have it. It was rough, still is, and that's what we love about it. We had to replace one of the nail heads on the top but that's about it! It has taken a beating or two from the grand kids but that's okay! One of these days I'll take a sander to it and give it a face lift, but for now it adds character to our family room.
There is a shop in McGuireville, Arizona called Jim's Trading Post and it's awesome. The whole front yard of the shop is filled with old pieces of furniture, barbed wire everything, shelving, old windows, you name it. It's a gold mine. We bought this old high chair there and use it in the kitchen as my purse stool. Doesn't every woman have "the spot" to put your purse when you come home? This is it for me.
In the corner of my breakfast nook sits these three iron candlesticks. I bought them all separately at thrift stores and grouped them in this corner. I don't know about you, but I'll go a while without stopping in my favorite thrift stores, then I binge on them for a while. Guess it's a mood thing.
Last, but not least, our dining room table. This was a Craigslist find. We've had it for a few years now. I really want to refinish the top of the table and hope to get that done before the heat hits this summer. I'll share the project with you when it happens.
Thanks so much for being here with me! I had fun sharing my interior decor loves. I'll see you back here soon! ~ Lisa