Barcelona Chair

Over the holidays I had the opportunity to make several trips back to one of my favorite vintage stores, the Treasure Mart in Ann Arbor, MI. Low and behold, one of these had just arrived in the store...

The Barcelona chair was originally designed by architect Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and Lily Reich for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain. It was put into production by Knoll as a piece of furniture in the 1930s through the 1950s; and has now become a piece that is an icon of mid century modern design. I was pleasantly surprised to find this one at the Treasure Mart; appearing to be an original, and looking a tad beat up in terms of the leather on its lower cushion. If I could've purchased it for my Etsy store, I would've done it in a second as it was very reasonably priced at $525 and these chairs can easily sell for up to $1200.  Alas, I couldn't have gotten it to Oregon, and my brothers did not feel like taking on the task of shipping it from Chicago, so I had to leave it there. It was heartbreaking!

New in the Shop

I went a little crazy this past week and picked up a bunch of new items for the store. I will drop a couple of hints about where I've found these treasures in subsequent postings this week. In the meantime though, here is a taste of what is new in the store this week...

 Atomic Mid Century Bar Glasses, Set of Six

 Chinoiserie Planter, featuring Chinese symbol for "long life"

Pre-War Handpainted Japanese Maruhun Ware Plate

Build a Swanky Bar

                                                                            Flickr


Thanks to the popularity of Mad Men; swanky bars are now more in style than ever. Do you ever get jealous when Don or Roger get to pour themselves a drink...in their offices...in the middle of the day? I do. No wonder Don Draper was a creative genius. These days most of us really do have to wait until it is 5 o'clock where we were are to fix a drink. Nonetheless, A stylish bar cart lets you set up a fully stocked bar anywhere...

                                                   From HGTV's "How to Style a Bar Cart"



Looking to build your ultimate bar cart? I've seen some pretty awesome stores that feature a mix of vintage and modern barware. Drinkx Culture in Provincetown, MA. is one of my personal favorites. But your first place to stop when looking for awesome bar essentials is your local thrift store. I picked these awesome mid century smoke glass pedestal glasses up on a recent thrift store run for a song.

Also think about what you actually want to display your liquor in. Some booze bottles are cool in themselves (Kaluha comes to mind). Others? Not so much. So also think about adding decanters or flasks to your bar to ramp up the style factor. This smoke glass decanter at Artmyth on Etsy would pair well with my glasses...

Saturday Night Alright

One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday is to hit up my local thrift shops and flea markets. Some days are more productive than others when you are searching for diamonds in the rough. Yesterday was just one of those days where I found a TON of good stuff. Here is a little preview of items that will soon be featured in my Etsy store.

The stars must have been aligned yesterday, as my Michigan Wolverines beat Notre Dame as well. No wonder Notre Dame wants to duck out of the rivalry after an epic beating in front of 115,000 people!