Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Craigslist: My sordid past

The light was a little better last night, so I stook some more pictures of Craiglist finds from around my house. Also exciting is the Flickr group of CL finds I discovered today (sometimes I’m a little late on the uptake).

I just added it all up, and all of the furniture pictured below is from Craigslist, and combined, it set me back less than $1,000. It’s taken some time and some serious hunting, but we all know that’s at least half the fun.

Let’s start with the cheapest:
I guess that’s a tie between this terrazzo table and the old metal hospital cabinet below. The table is part of a pair. The other one holds my orchid (not a metaphor for something naughty…get your mind out of the gutter). Marc and I each bought one from a girl in Chinatown and now they’re reunited—and it feels so good…
I used to have this cabinet in my bathroom, which had no storage at all. It was great. Now, it’s a super-handy catchall in the office. The best thing? It’s magnetic! Since the fridge isn’t, it’s nice to have a place to tack up pictures and stuff. Maybe the best $25 I’ve spent.
These guys are new. This is the fourth(!) marble table I’ve acquired in my short Chicago years. Might have a problem. We just picked these up from a nice lady downtown so we’d have a place to sit on the back porch. So far, we’ve had one dinner there, and it was lovely. It’s the perfect size for two people, and I love the wrought iron base.

Also in the $50 range is this mid-century dresser: Originally, it came in a great bedroom set, but the headboard, highboy and night stand went to live with Shan and Matt, where they look gorgeous in her blue bedroom. Torn apart—and it feels so good…

We bought the set from an older woman who was moving into assisted living. She was so nice and tried to give us the entire bed, an old answering machine, sheets, you name it! We saved the wallpaper she used to line the drawers. She told us all about the store in Chicago where she picked it out. It’s nice to that stuff, I think. I hope when I pass it on, I’ll have some more good stories to share.
This chair actually has a mate, you just can’t see him. I bought these from a young mom in Old Irving Park who was making room in her home for her new baby. She was a real furniture lover and had some gorgeous stuff. I love these chairs so much. At first, Marc wasn’t sold on the teal, but now we both love it with the reddish brown wood floors. These were $80 and need a smidge of work—still useable, though.

You know what? I’m going to save the really big ticket item for tomorrow. Stay tuned to see what caused me to immediately jump in a cab and head to the Viagra Triangle and break off a bulk of my furniture fund. See also: the thing so heavy it almost killed my boyfriend and his dad.

1 comment:

vintagebird said...

I'm loving the new marble table. Tell the dresser the rest of the bedroom set says hi!

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