Flea Market Friday: Mid Century Modern furniture bonanza!

Hey all- I just had the best yard sale experience in a long time- perhaps ever. Thank goodness my brother still needs furniture in his new house because if I had to just walk away and leave these goodies on the driveway I probably would have regretted it for a long long time!

And I apologize for the pictures- it was all I could do to get these things out of the truck and safely into the garage. They definitely weren't going any further until I had someone to help. I smashed my fingers unloading them by myself- they are solid mahogany. (Don't worry- I'm icing my hand down with a nice cold drink...)

First I bought a new desk for my daughter. It's a little cracked-ice formica-topped steel cabinet with two drawers. Maybe it was originally a sewing table, or a little kitchen desk. With a little polish and some fresh pink paint it will be perfect. A steal at $1!

Then the big boys- a solid wood buffet and hutch from the early 1960s. Made by Broyhill, the label (photo at top) says "Saga". I love the detail on the handles and the starburst door panels. Both pieces look barely used, and have zero scratches. $40 each. I didn't even haggle- the older couple was so nice and helped me load it all up.

There are sliding glass doors for the top of this as well- removed for transport!

And a flying saucer adjustable pendant lamp- $1. Don't hate me! ;)

Last but not least, is a mint condition 1940s sofa that still had the original tag on it for $10. That's still in my truck though until someone helps me move it so photos will have to wait!

There were all kinds of MCM goodies at this sale and I was super excited to still be able to snag these so late in the day! I may go back with my brother again tomorrow and possible buy a bedroom set and formica kitchen set...stay tuned....

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Trash-picked Tuesday: Take a seat!

This is kind of a before-and-after Trash-picked Tuesday project that I've been meaning to get up for the last several weeks. I had these two dinette chairs in our barn left from the previous owners. They had great bones but had obviously seen better days. As you may recall, I already have a 1950s dinette set with four chairs, so they stayed out there until I had a use for them. Now with Tom moving into his own place and needing some furniture, I decided I would try and clean them up a bit to take over to his house. (I'm tired of eating pizza around an old cardboard box while sitting on top of 5-gal buckets when we're over there working.) Besides, they match a dinette table he already has- courtesy of our cousin ;)

The seats were ripped and mice had gotten into the padding, so I removed that. If he wants to spend the time and money on replacement cracked-ice vinyl, I'll replace them eventually.  For now, we'll just use tie-on chair pads. I scrubbed the chairs with Comet and let them dry.

The chrome has really gotten rusty and pitted over the years, particularly where the back meets the seat. I spent several hours with steel wool and Nu-finish on the legs to get them to the point where the remaining chrome was shiny. Some places were completely worn away to the bare metal and nothing short of re-plating is going to help.

This is the end result- you can see the neat turquoise trim- too bad I didn't come across these 20 years ago or they could have been much nicer! But I think they came out pretty well for something that had been left for trash.