Monday, July 12, 2010

Antiquing.

My mom and I have a favorite activity: treasure hunting. We love to set out on a Saturday morning and see what the day brings us. Last Saturday, we continued on the month-long quest for the round kitchen table. My mom has been looking for a round pedestal table for some time. She didn't want a new one, she wanted one with character. Also - where do you think my thrifty-ness comes from? She wanted one for a good price. 

So we set off on our adventure. Our first stops were a bust but eventually we found a little gem on Summer appropriately named "Flea Market." It is across from Ike's at Summer and Perkins (for anyone who wants to check it out). It is a funny little place - cash only, run by a few friends, sort of shady. Lots and lots of stuff crammed in this tiny building. It would definitely be one of those places I would just check out every once in a while - for cheap furniture, especially if you're looking to paint it or fix it up, this would be a good place to go. 

First off of our finds, this little guy is why we stopped - he was outside on the street inviting us in. We'd been looking for a 3-drawer nightstand for Jacob's room at school (his first real apartment!!) and this one was wonderful at $25 compared to the ones we'd been seeing for 3X as much:
 It is a clunker of a piece, real wood all the way. 

Next up, as we were approaching Miss Mary (who runs "Flea Market") to buy that piece, my mom spied this table... perfect. We've looked at about 15 tables and haven't been able to find one. Oh and new, tables like this were about 1,000-3,000$. Yeah. And a lot of the "antique" ones we saw were painted. And my mom does NOT like painted tables (and let the booth owners know this... something about forming the equivalent of PETA for wood furniture?). So this has been a long quest. Which ended at "Flea Market" on Summer. Miss Mary had discounted it from 185 to 135$ for a "4th of July sale" (note: this was July 10th). When my mom said she didn't want the chairs (as we have chairs), Miss Mary knocked it down to $100 without us having to ask. Wow. And these nice guys loaded it in their truck and followed us home to deliver it. Here's the table:
(Sitting in the living room of my parents house until they move the old table to the garage, where it will sit until it goes to meet its demise as Jacob and Ezra's kitchen table in their first college apartment). 

While my mom was looking at the table, I managed to find this little guy. I've been wanting one:
I believe it is authentic. And only $10. We're going to make some fondue soon. I'll let you know how it is. Once I find one of those canned gel heat things. 

After leaving "Flea Market" with promises to return, we thought we were done for the day. But no - we later ventured out to Gary's Antiques on Central (which I blogged about here) and found a few more fun things.

I gave Jake a set of vintage Heineken glasses a while back from an antique store in Knoxville (the one on the right is a part of that set). Gary's had another glass from the same collection (on the left) so we got the 4 glasses.

 Jake watched the World Cup with a friend on Sunday and used these glasses, filled with Amstel Light and Heineken in a nod to the country they supported, the Netherlands. 


I have started collecting the vintage Pyrex dishes. My mom found these bowls below at a yard sale last month and I got this refrigerator dish on Saturday from Gary's:

While we were walking out, I glanced at a painting I've seen every time we've been in Gary's. I have always liked it but never gotten it. On Saturday, I decided what bothered me was the frame - it was a plain wood with no finish. So I bought the piece, took it out of its frame, sprayed the frame black, and now am figuring out where to hang it:
All in all, a fun shopping day - and I came out only $45 the poorer than I began!

4 comments:

Hilary Dow Ward said...

ahem....I would love to trail along with you and your Mummy sometime...as I am (and get ready to drip a tear) motherless in Memphis....not to be confused with sleepless in seattle. (tehee.)
Great finds. I found my ram's head pedestals at Gary's. They're awesome. I also sold him my previous dining room chairs, they were gone in a day! He does a good biz down there on Central and Peabody!
I wonder if he knows we've been blogging about him?

Unknown said...

There are a few places I've been wanting to try out - I have yet to go down the Central Ave row other than a few times in the place by Memphis Water Works and my usual Gary's stop. Perhaps you and I could make a date to do this (Toad Hall, the new World's Away outlet, Second Hand Roses, etc) sometime.

Robyn said...

I want to go!

Unknown said...

I've been on the hunt for vintage mixing bowls too! I love the ones you've found

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