Mid Century Garage Sale Find

Our master bedroom "redo" has officially started in that we now no longer have any of our furniture. We passed it on and we have just been staying in the guest bedroom. Its like being on vacation...in the upstairs of our house. Which incidentally is warmer, so maybe we should sleep up there all winter? Anyway. Part of replacing our bedroom furniture involves replacing the great big dresser that we used to have. I didn't really have any ideas of what type to get or where to get it. And then I remembered that we already have a dresser...upstairs in our spare room.

I bought said dresser last May at a garage sale. I had been out that morning with my grandmother at garage sales and then convinced Pascal to go with me to one around the corner at about 1 pm. It was one of the few times that he has actually gone with me. The garage sale was at an older couples house who was moving. They asked if we were interested in any furniture and said that they were really trying to get rid of it since it was the end of the day. The furniture was inside so we also got to see the house which is always fun.I am so nosy, I love to see what other people in the area have done to their houses since we all live in basically the same house.

They had what looked like a 9 drawer dresser but was actually a hutch. It had two bookcase looking pieces that went on top of the dresser part but were not currently attached. I didn't really need the dresser but it was beautiful and seemed like it was in good shape. It was a vintage Lane Furniture piece with dovetailed joints. I told them that I only wanted the dresser part not the top "hutch" part and the women said $25. I couldn't even negotiate with that fantastic price. She even said she would have her son drop it off since we lived around the corner and it was too big for my car. Sold. I decided that I would save it for when we one day have a nursery.

After I got home I did some research and learned that we really had gotten a great piece. I found a similar Lane dresser for sale online for $700! Here is another one that looks exactly the same as ours but smaller for $500! So all this time I have had this fabulous dresser just collecting dust. So it made sense to move it downstairs to our master bedroom where it would really fit much better than in a nursery.

The dresser did have some nicks and scratches on it but was overall in good condition. I cleaned it and used a magic eraser on some of the scuffs. I then bought Howard's Restor-A-Finish and Feed-N-Wax to polish the dresser. I read good reviews about it online and it was $17 for both products. I heardly used any of it so I will be able to use this on many other projects.

 

I used the Restor-A-Finish first and wiped it on with an old rag. After a half hour I wiped off any access. It already looked great but I then added the Feed-N-Wax once it was completely dry. The best part about that was the great orangey smell. Now I think the dresser looks basically new.

Before

After

Left Polished/Right Unpolished

Elephant Trunk Flea Market

Woohoo post #50!

Soo this past weekend my husband and I decided to take a road trip...to a flea market...in Connecticut. I am a big fan of Flea Market Flips on HGTV and the places they go in the show always look fantastic. The main place they go is the Rose Bowl in California (want.to.go.so.bad.) but there was also a show that they did at the Elephant Trunk Flea Market in Connecticut. And I thought, hey Connecticut isn't that far. Well my sense of geography is not that great (#homeschooled) but oh well. So I cashed out my credit card points which paid for everything and we drove up on Saturday. We stayed in a small hotel and were at the Elephant Trunk bright and early around 7 am Sunday. We were so lucky  that we had great weather since it rained all last week!

EXCITED

http://www.etflea.com/_/Home.html

It was $2 to get in the gate but you could also pay $20 to get in at 5:45 am. We got there a bit after 7 am when it officially opened and there were already a ton of people there. According to the Elephant Trunk they have 1,000 parking spaces and 300 vendor spaces. People were parked everywhere by half way through the day. The event ends at 2 pm and we stayed till 11 am. Yes we were there for 4 hours. I have a great husband. 

I was so excited when we walked in. There were rows and rows of tables everywhere. I didn't even know where to start. We decided to walk through the whole thing once just looking at everything and then we walked through a second time actually stopping at the individual vendors. I think you definitely have to do this because I saw a lot of stuff the second time that I missed before and some vendors were still putting stuff out. And then we sorta walked through a third time to check out some specific spaces that we had in mind.

So I actually ended up selling our black end tables from Target a couple weeks ago on Craigslist for $80 (which is almost what I bought them for since I got them on sale). They were in perfect condition but I wanted something a little more unique. I have been looking all summer for end tables at yard sales but haven't found any so I brought the $80 from the old tables to look for some new ones. Besides that we weren't really looking for anything in particular- just there for the experience. 

There was a lot of crazy stuff there. Mostly antique/vintage stuff with some new and crafty items. If you were looking for antique wood crates or vintage dishes/glassware there was a ton of that. There were lots of little knick knacks and unique items. There was a good amount of furniture although not a ton. I tried to take a lot of pictures of all the fun stuff. 

I liked this super long bench. It would not fit in my car. It made me think of my mom's house.

Soldier anyone?

I liked these tiny kid chairs!

Great accent for your wall

There were lots of vintage toys. Lead paint anyone?

Lots of tarnished silver. Those trays were $10

I thought these would be cool to make something with. Note creepy baby heads in the back. 

Calf Livers?

Crafted by a local welder

I liked the metal table and stools

You could do some cool things with all these clock pieces

This was terrifying and scared me both times I walked by it

These coffee tables were awesome

We saw several pairs of snowshoes  

I was really tempted to get these and I was surprised no one did by the time we left. Only $25 for all 4 chairs but I don't really need them right now. 

Beautiful coffee table for $150

I thought these were cool and anyone could make them.
They would be cool to change out the letters depending on the season. 

I took a picture of this because it looks just like our dining room chairs and it was $40. Ours were free...Thanks Geama!

Despite all of the great unique stuff that we saw we actually only bought two things. Our end tables and a fun souvenir. After walking through the first time we only noticed a couple tables. I was open to getting mismatched tables but nothing was really exciting me. But on our second time around we saw two matching round wood tables. They opened up for storage (uh oh room for me to hide things) and were in perfect condition. Some lamps were sitting on top of them that were $70 EACH so I was nervous to ask how much the tables were. The woman said that they were $120 for both but she could do $80. I double checked to make sure I heard right, $80 for BOTH. The exact amount of my budget for the tables. Pascal and I stood awkwardly trying to communicate with our minds and finally walked away saying we would think about it. She then said that she would do $75. After about 3 minutes we came back and got them. So that is my negotiating strategy...appear uninterested. I am scared of negotiating! The woman was very nice and was excited we were going to get them. She said they "suited us". She told us about how an elderly couple had them for years in their bedroom and then she used them in her livingroom. We left the tables there and then picked them up later. 

I was very proud of myself for caring one to the car all by myself. It was worse though when we couldn't even find the car...

Here are the tables with Pascal trying to find the car.

I made him take this picture while he was up there to show how many people were there. 

I sat with the tables and waited while he went to find the car.

He came back for me.

They fit perfectly and we didn't even have to put the back seat down. Pascal buckled them in for safety :). He is going to be great dad one day. 

And they made it home. 

The other thing that we bought was this fun mailbox door for $4.

He had 5 different ones but only 2 with numbers on them. He originally said $5 but then went down to $4 when we just kept standing there looking at them. He said the metal is worth almost that much at the scrap yard haha. He showed us how to re-open them when closed and showed us the dates engraved on the back. Ours is from 1961! It is a fun little souvenir and we shall see what we do with it. Make a box to attach it to as the front? Or my thought was that it would make a really cool door for a future dollhouse. When I walked by his table the third time all of the doors were gone. 

Overall it was a good trip and the flea market was great. The amount of vendors and stuff did not disappoint. I would definitely recommend it...maybe if you were in area anyway.