Soon after buying this place, Agent Smith and I discussed ways to furnish it that did not involve rushing off to IKEA, Restoration Hardware or some other mass-produced furniture outlet. Instead, we would take our time and perhaps investigate the estate sales market.
A few years into living here, and the opportunity to find, let alone attend, suitable estate sales was proving difficult. Then a friend recommend a couple of local auction houses that not only handle interesting art and trinkets, but also furniture. I perused their offerings online and then in May 2019, I found what I thought would be a suitable table for the great room–a lovely Midcentury Modern table with two leaves and a touch of water damage.
While visiting family in Florida, I bid online and managed to win the table for far, far less than anything new from a store. Once home, I made arrangements to drive to Alameda to pick it up. Thankfully, we have Barbie, so bringing home furniture isn’t a terribly difficult thing. I’m actually getting good with straps too!
The water damage was more extensive than I originally thought (see below), but when Agent Smith’s father visited a few months later, he made very quick work of restoring the veneer. He also raised its height about two inches by adding blocks where the legs attach to the table.
Here’s the refinished table, and with some placemats I found on Etsy.
About the chairs–notice I only mentioned buying a table, and that is because I got incredibly lucky. See, a California-based chain called Orchard Supply Hardware, which was purchased by Lowe’s and then eventually shuttered, was a store we often frequented. Shortly after moving in, I picked up a small table and two chairs there that were technically patio furniture. For several years they sat upstairs in the great room as our sole bits of furniture. I kicked myself pretty hard over the fact that I only bought two chairs, as the more we used them, the more I became convinced they would be excellent dining chairs. Problem was, I had purchased only two of them, and the company that made them changed the design slightly so I couldn’t simply just buy a couple more.
Fast-forward to early 2019 when the local Orchard was liquidating stock. I popped in and, in a jumble of eucalyptus wood chairs, there were two chairs of the original design. Even better, they were on sale. So for well under half the cost of some fancy-schmancy thing from Crate and Barrel or IKEA, we now have a gorgeous table and chairs that totally work in the space. How awesome is that?
But I wasn’t done with what is now my very favorite auction house.