Flea Market Fun

I ventured out to the Alemany Flea Market this past weekend, hoping it was the day I'd find the perfect area rug for our living room. As some of you know, this has been an ongoing search for us! The usual "rug guy" wasn't there, and I only came across one potential ... but the colors weren't quite right.

I did, however, come home with a couple of great finds which I'm VERY excited about ....

Moroccan table:

Yep - it found an instant home in our living room, and I LOVE it. I've often looked at tables like this, and they've always been out of my price range. This one is missing a few small pieces but that's a trade-off that works for me! If imperfect means I save a few hundred dollars ... I'll take it!

After a trip to load the table into my car, I circled back to this chair which I had been eyeing during my first stroll through the vendors' booths. A bit of bartering and it was mine!

I've been on the lookout for armchairs to replace the two we currently have in our living room, mainly because they're too large for the space. I always love the look of old chairs reupholstered with some funky fabric. Like this BEAUTIFUL ikat ...

I'm not sure whether I'll paint it. I love the wood but paint (black? white? other?) would give it a nice update.

One of my favorite features is the fabric panel on the back, which will allow me to use two different fabrics - can't wait to find the perfect contrasting patterns!

And believe it or not, my weekend treasure-hunting adventures did not end at the flea market! On Monday morning I headed over to Building REsources with my friend Joscelyn and my sister Mary. My mission was to find hardware for a desk I recently painted (more on that later!). The thing is, you never know what you might stumble upon (or dig for :)) during an adventure such as this.

This time, it was a BEAUTIFUL carved solid oak headboard! Oh my goodness - I'm so in love with it ... and leave you in suspense for now, because I've no pictures yet and we left the biggest piece there to pick up this weekend. And I'm proud to say I bartered for this as well. :)

free chair - i'm digging the rustic look

The headboard wasn't all we found ... we managed to fill Joscelyn's SUV with some of the headboard pieces, a bookshelf for Mary, a tray for Josc, and 4 dining chairs which they threw in for free! I'm a sucker for free. The chairs will be another reupholstering project - yippee!! Oh, the fun I'll have with fabric in the coming weeks. I promise to share pictures of everything soon!

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Moroccan Lantern

Here I am, happily cozy on my day off, relaxing on the couch and enjoying blinding sunshine one moment; rain/hail the next on this day of strange weather in San Francisco. Most surprising is that I'm feeling equally inspired by both extremes of weather! (i'm usually anything but inspired by rain!)

For my first post, I'll cover our recent light fixture project. Our house came with brand new and perfectly nice ceiling light fixtures, but they're nothing I would have picked out, and do nothing for the space. The first one to go was in the dining room.

Back in a 2007 issue of Domino, designer Schuyler Samperton's dining room was featured (photo above). SO much to love about this room - saris as curtains, layers on the table and floor... but most of all -- the perfect moroccan lantern. (this link is the source but not the exact lantern.) I FELL IN LOVE, and could hardly wait for the day when I could have my very own - if much more affordable - version.

Mission accomplished last month on ebay, and for only $36! (after several additional supplies which were required for installation, total cost was around $50 -- still a steal as far as I'm concerned!)

After removing the old fixture, a trip to Lowe's helped us gather the materials needed to wire and attach the new lantern to the ceiling (cord, chain, ceiling mount).

So, enough of the story - let's get to the pictures! Here's a 'before' picture (with some of the lovely friends who joined us for Thanksgiving last year). See what I mean? It gets lost above the table, and has no character to speak of. Moving on....

The new, beautiful Moroccan lantern in its place:


some close-ups:


Check out the pattern created by the light on the ceiling - love it!

I'm sooooo happy with our new light fixture, and now even MORE inspired to replace the other two like it (one in the kitchen, one in living room).

I need to give my husband much of the credit for this project, since he was the one to actually remove the old fixture, handle the wiring, chain, etc. Thanks sweetie!

The dining room is far from finished - among my many goals are new chairs, a beautiful paint color on the walls, a curtain to cover the bathroom doorway ... the list goes on. However, there also are many, many other projects which are likely to rise the the surface first ... so you likely won't see this room again for awhile! Let me know what you think about our lovely lantern. :)

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