I am a big fan of “use what you have”. It pretty much defines my decorating style. But yesterday I broadened my views ( a bit) to encompass the decorating philosophy of ”use what your neighbor has”. That’s kind of the whole idea behind Freecycle.org, right? (well that and the whole not filling up landfills thingy) Yesterday these two lovely ladies joined my household of eclectic finds:
One word: fantabulous!
Here is my short history with these chairs. A couple of years ago we (and our house) were part of the city’s Home Historic Tour. Our next door neighbor was in it too. The night before the two-day event all the participants got to tour one another’s homes. While touring our neighbor’s house these caught my Inner French Girl’s eye. Love at first sight. I never forgot them…and they never forgot me.
Fast forward to about a year ago. Sadly, I heard that our neighbors were getting a divorce. And one day I heard the commotion of people working/loading a truck. I peeked out my front window just in time to see these elegant ladies all loaded up in the back of a pick up truck being callously hauled away. I was so bummed. Were they sold? Going to storage? Grrrrr. There is such a fine line between being a curious or nosy neighbor so I tried a little incognito sleuthing (thank you, Ellen) but really didn’t find out for sure what had happened to them. It was my best guess they were going into storage until the divorce was all finalized. I mean seriously, how does one express condolences about the demise of a marriage and ask for their chairs at the à propos time? It can’t be done.
Fast forward to yesterday. Brett and I had a lovely lunch together where we talked about a possible “2 Year Plan” for our future. I do believe I was the one who said she would be ready to sell the house, most of our possessions (however, I did mention keeping the living room and master bedroom furniture in storage—good thing!), and live abroad for at least a year or two…to try it out, you know? He was surprised that I was willing to take that kind of leap. I guess he shouldn’t have been. On the way home we passed our neighbor’s house only to see a menagerie of antiques sitting in his driveway with a “Make an Offer” sign. And there were the chairs. My chairs. Back from hiding. I nearly leaped out of our moving car to go stake my claim on them. We were on our way to the grocery store to pick up some food stuffs for entertaining and I knew, I just knew!, they would be gone by the time we got home. But they weren’t. The decision was discussed (thankfully I have just about the most understanding husband walking the earth…one minute I am ready to sell off everything and the next, I am buying more) and made. Our neighbor let me put them in the house first to see if they would really work or not before the transaction was complete. Of course they worked! How could they not? I had to do some refashioning of some tables, lamps and the family room but it all came together beautifully.
Happy Monday!
~~Heather~~
