Save The Date: Saturday, Sept 26th... YARD SALE!

Mr. and Mrs. Salvage Chick request the honour of your presence at their home in Halifax MA on Saturday, September 26th, between the hours of 9AM and 4PM for what promises to be The Yard Sale of the Century.



OK, maybe not the Century, because I'm not sure I have quite as much stuff as I did at the last Gala Yard Sale Event in 2007. And I'm gonna have to stop pretending Kenny has anything to do with this, because when I warned him I was having a Yard Sale this weekend he started talking about how he completely stresses out over the Parking Situation when I have a Yard Sale. Have No Fear! I reminded him; Last Time the Halifax Police kindly gave me "No Parking This Side" signs to put on one side of the street. But still, if anyone knows of a good All-Day Lord of the Rings Marathon on Saturday or maybe a convention for people who Hate George W. Bush and prefer Macs over PCs, we might want to send him there to get him out of our hair.



Back to the Yard Sale! Claudia and I have been stockpiling boxes of items for this yard sale for months now. She has graciously volunteered to work at the shop on Saturday so I can have this sale On Location at my house, in close proximity to The Shed Where Furniture Goes to Die. You know how I am always blogging about trying to clean This Shed out? Well, there are actually 3 of them, and a Garage... it's time for a Clean Sweep!!



And before you go thinking "if you can't sell it at the shop, why would I want to buy it?" LOTS of these items have never even made it to the shop. Or we just have WAY to many of the same item (Thermos, anyone?) And as for those afraid of "eBay Duds"... I honestly don't have time to research everything. At my last Yard Sale, nobody bought this little Haunted House & Witch Doll I had marked $5. I put it away in my Halloween bin; when I pulled it out the next Fall, I had a little more time on my hands and looked it up. Woah! A Rare 1970's Girl's World Emerald the Enchanting Witch!! I listed it on eBay and the auction ended at $465!!

Even though you might not find a Treasure QUITE that rare, I hope to see you there.
Route 106 Halifax, between the Country Club & the Car Wash (300 Block of Plymouth St.)

PS. All That was just ONE SHED! I wonder what's behind THIS Door??

CLEAN-OUT at the Sleepy Beggar Tavern!

Check out all of these Goodies just waiting to be loaded into the Jeep for transport to Salvage Chic! Fresh from a Clean-Out in Halifax at the home of a woman with the most amazing, ecelectic taste ever...



OK, so it was MY house, LOL. People always ask me "How can you bear to PART with this stuff?" and my standard answer is that It's Easy; when I get to be surrounded by everything in the shop all week, at home I'm finding I like things more stream-lined and uncluttered. Generally when I find something I HAVE to adopt, I make myself give something up so my house doesn't start to look like... Salvage Chic.

My Husband was on vacation today and mentioned the temperature's about to drop so we might want to load up on Firewood for the woodstove. I told him he could put it in this big wood box where I normally hide the Recycling Bins in our Carriage House and then while I was clearing it out realized that the whole Glorified Shed you walk through to get into our house was Gnarly with spider webs, dust and (!!!) mildew so that spurned a few hours of work with the Shop Vac and Murphy's Oil Soap.

Now, before you go thinking "Gag Me, Martha Stewart, as you unveil another wing of your sprawling estate" let me point out that Antique Homes, while they have lots of charm and lend themselves well to decorating in the Salvage Chic style, they also lack modern amenities like Closets. And Level Floors, or Level ANYTHING. And Windows That Don't Need a Stick to Prop Them Open. This c1833 House was built before Electricity; or Plumbing, so we have all sorts of weird retrofits going on. If you're still impressed, email me; my next-door-neighbor's c1808 home has been on the market for about 3 years and the price just dropped... AGAIN.

Back to the Regularly-Scheduled-Blog! If you go way-way-way back to the Beginning of the Blog you'll find the story of how Jack swindled me into storing some church pews for him and Lo-and-Behold, the Sleepy Beggar Tavern was born. So-named because we set up the pews with tables between them and a certain Hound named Izzy literally fell asleep while begging the first time we ate out there. My friend Karen who used to own My Favorite Place in Hanover was kind enough to make me this sign:



And now here it is, in all its Freshly Uncluttered Glory:





This old menu I got from Yard Sale Buddy when he cleaned out the old Hosea's Restaurant in Pembroke. Come to think of it, most of the accents in this room I got from Yard Sale Buddy... I think I was supposed to sell them for him but they kind of 'landed' here for a while (SHHHHH!)



This sign came from Brimfield, I think I paid $35 for it when I was out there in May. Notice the hours 7PM - 12PM? I think they meant 12AM.



Scored this old glass hanging lamp from a guy on the Cape that gave it to me for ONE DOLLAR just to tick off Yard Sale Buddy who was trying to haggle a little too much



One of my favorite finds ever; Kenny and I were at our Neighbor's yard sale back when we lived in West Roxbury. I said "I love that old workbench they're using as a table for the yard sale." He said I should ask if it was for sale, to which I replied "DON'T BE SILLY! No one would sell THAT!" Later that night I found it for FREE on the curb while out walking the dog.



The Wood freshly stacked in the Bin that inspired today's Project



And finally, this fun Old Mousetrap with a little Mouse made out of dough, that I got from Claudia. And WAIT, what's THAT? A giant BUG? Didn't I JUST CLEAN this place?!? SIGH...

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Here's one from the "Is it TOO Salvage Chic?" File. A couple of weeks ago I bought this ultra-shabby sideboard from one of my Supply Guys. Normally I don't go for Art Deco but something about it appealed to me in a Homely Stray Dog kind of way and he practically PAID me to take it, so how could I say No. Now mind you, This Guy's Venue is really dimly lit and I have been known to make some regretful purchases there so after I left it to pick up later, I immediately started with the "WHY did I BUY That?!? WHO besides ME is going to LIKE That? Then promptly forgot all about it (DENIAL!) until a week or so later I went back to see what new stock he had... and was hit Smack in the Face with This Vision:



It was kind of like waking up in the morning after having one drink too many and recollecting fuzzily "I did WHAT?" (at least, from what my friends tell me; this has never really happened to me... Hi Dad!) So anyway I packed my purchase into the Jeep somewhat remorsefully and headed back to Halifax. Where, as it turns out, I happen to have a dining room trimmed out in Colonial Teal. 8 doorways and 2 windows worth. The period colors came with the house and it's too daunting a task to paint them so I just decorate around them. And re-decorate, and re-decorate... (in case you hadn't noticed).

So what do you think, LOVE it or HATE it? And is there really such a thing as TOO Salvage Chic?

Sometimes You've Gotta Kiss a Lot of Frogs

before you meet That Prince. Luckily I already have mine so I've got plenty of time to do stupid things like purchase 40 boxes of random items, Sight Unseen. The 1st of the month always brings people out of the woodwork trying to make rent money and in this case it was one of my regular Supply Guys who drove up with a vanload of boxes. The Price was Right if I looked at it from the perspective of each box being a scratch ticket that may or may not be a big winner, so I gambled. And immediately regretted it as he started loading the boxes in the Shop's back room and I realized how many there actually were... and wondering whether I should file this under the "I Should Have My Head Examined", or the "Claudia's Gonna Kill Me!" file.

By the time he left I had a wall of boxes 5 wide by 4 high and 2 deep. Originally I had thought "if I can just tackle one box a day..." but when I conveyed this idea to Claudia she shot me a look that said she would have to kill me long before 30 days was up. (Did I mention space is at a premium back there?)

Luckily I was able to take advantage of the Monsoon that killed business on Saturday and tackle most of the boxes. I felt like a Scientist on an Archeological Dig as I unearthed and identified each Layer. "Ah, here we have the Leftovers From the Multi-Family Yard Sale: VHS tapes & Bud Lite Bottle Coozies"... "Ugh, the Dreaded Other Dealer's Duds: Enough Cut Glass & Tarnished Silverplate to Choke A Horse (still with price tags on)"... and then suddenly, right about when I was muttering "why the !$@*# did I buy all this crap?" AHA! The "We Inherited the House and Just Want to Get Rid of All This Junk So We Can Sell It" Civilization!! I LOVE that Tribe! And the Payload: lots of 1950's-60's Kitchen Stuff, Magazines, Cookbooks, Pottery, and More! I guess this beats Kissin' Frogs after all...



THIS is just the Stuff I got rid of; Don't you wonder what I kept? Stop in this weekend and see What's New... you won't be disappointed!!

Mad as a Hatter

So today was such a smashing Sales Day at Salvage Chic I decided to treat myself to this lamp I've been eyeing since Claudia put it out the other day. She was calling it a "Mad Hatter Lamp" on the tag, which seemed appropriate for its fun & quirky shape. I brought it home to try it out and wasn't sure if I liked it or not; but Kenny immediately piped up "It looks much better in here than the old lamp what with the curtains & bedding that are in here." Hmph; either he was doing a really good job at channeling his Inner Decorator or he was just trying to shut me up. The REAL TEST, I said to myself, will be after dark when I can see it lit.

Fast forward a couple of hours and I skipped in to turn the light on and step back to admire the view. Something didn't look quite right... the bulb seemed a bit bright, so I went to check that out, but it was only 60 Watts. Still it just seemed, really HIGH up toward the top of the shade. That's when I remembered a couple extra clicks when I turned it on. AHA! It's a 3-WAY LAMP! Off to the pantry to get a different bulb. Only, Oh No, now the bulb is too tall for the harp the shade hangs on, it won't FIT!!
Right about this moment I started wondering how many people have gotten something home from Salvage Chic only to discover something slightly off about it that leaves them muttering "THAT *!@#? PLACE!" Was this the wrong shade for the lamp base, or the wrong harp for the lamp and shade? Oddly I happened to have a larger harp handy so I swapped that out and Voila. "Thank GOD!" I exclaimed which of course was enough to have Kenny inquiring from the other room "What's the Matter?" So I went in and told him the whole story and he got this little grin on his face and said "You're so cute, only YOU would happen to have the right spare lamp part hovering around" which I'm pretty sure is Husband-Code for "You're Freaking CRAZY."


So the real question is... Can YOU see the difference? Or am I really as Mad as a Hatter??

Mad Props

I'm sure that's what the Critics will be rewarding the Set Designers at the Huntington Theater Company with next month when this Salvage Chic Find takes center stage for the performance of "Fences", a 1950's-based play based on the novel by August Wilson.




When the guys came today to pick up the table I tried to act all cool like Professional Set Designers come here all the time, but really it was just once before. And the guy wasn't exactly a Professional, at Set Designing anyway... he was a nice teacher from a pre-school in Duxbury where the kids were putting on Annie. So I loaned him a suitcase, and a strand of pearls, in exchange for a free ad in the Programme; and so-began my Set Design career. This time, they actually BOUGHT the table. I'd say I'm making progress! Hollywood, Here I Come!

The Way to a Man's Heart...

is NOT Through is Stomach! Let's put that old theory to bed right now. Trust me Ladies, the way to a Man's Heart is through his... TV. Specifically his flat screen LCD model, which Kenny has been clamoring for for quite some time. Luckily I already have him in my Clutches so I was able to stave him off by telling him he could get one, WHEN (and IF!) I found the right piece of furniture to house it. He seemed satisfied with my excuse and I promptly forgot all about my promise until I stumbled upon THIS piece of furniture at Salvage Chic:

The key to converting a piece like this into a TV stand is it has to have the dust liners under the drawers so you can take the drawers out and house your cable box/DVD player etc. on the 'shelves'. My first step was to remove the bottom 2 drawers and spray paint the inside in a color of close proximity to the chocolate brown color of the piece. Then I had Kenny drill some holes in the back for ventilation:

By then he had already dismantled our old setup (insert horrifying Psycho stab sounds) and unearthed THIS mess of wiring:

The old TV cabinet from Target was put out to pasture or rather, the curb (HEY, we all make Poor Design Choices from time to time...)

Next I was bound, gagged and blindfolded and taken to Best Buy, where I don't really remember what happened but I suspect I racked up serious mileage points on my MBNA Mastercard.

A few hours later the New Technology was in place and Kenny was happily enjoying the Red Sox Game while his Trusty Assistants gave new meaning to the words "Dog-Tired".




I, of course, had seized the opportunity to completely re-arrange the living room and was unable to relax and enjoy the fruits of their labor, because my dining room table now looked like The Place Where Old Technology & Random Accessories go to Die!


SIGH. Luckily I knew JUST the place to get the last few finishing touches I needed; so after sleeping on it, I came home from the shop today with the tall French Windows I stole from Jack (shhh, he's on vacation, I'll just Blog a lot this week and he'll never read this post.) I tried to shoot the photos in panoramic fashion so you get a sense of the room; it's really an odd configuration because someone knocked a wall down at one point leaving a large but L-shaped room I've never been happy with the flow of. Fireplaces are cool to have, but only on HGTV are they the Focal point of the room; in real life, it's YOU GUESSED IT - the TV! And I have to say, I could tell my non-Antiquer friends I got the TV stand at Crate & Barrel and they'd TOTALLY believe me; of course, I'll proudly brag it's from Salvage Chic!! And even better, aside from the TV & the rug, I think almost everything in the room was bought second-hand... Now THAT's Salvage Chic!