Monday, April 22, 2013

Estate Sale SENSORY OVERLOAD

Good morning!

Well, this weekend was a productive one for estate sale-ing. I saw this humdinger listed on Estatesales.net, and while there were a lot of winners in the sale-pool this weekend, this was the only one I found myself crowing to interested co-workers about. "Jamie, you HAVE TO SEE THIS SALE THIS WEEKEND, OH MY GOD," I told one of the women who works in circulation as she came up to switch out the holds carts from behind the nonfiction desk, and she, Evelyn the security guard, and I all gathered around the monitor to take a gander at THIS, people:



It's mid-seventies' Vegas all up in this piece! I was just flabbergasted by the wild-and-out, Elvis-at-Graceland like affinity for crush gold velvet in interior design. I mean, wouldn't you be?! Gold shag carpeting. Gold brocade drapes. This photo is like what the inside of my mind looks like.

So I corralled Sus into going with me, picked her up at 7:10 the next morning, and we drove down to Bellevue....to find out the sale began at 8:00. Rats. One of the listings said 7:30! So we waited thirty minutes in line, as if at an AC/DC concert, to gain entrance to the sale. Most of the other people in line were professional pickers, and Sus and I chatted amiably through the cold and the muckiness of Friday morning until they opened the doors. One guy behind me overheard us talking about Don Rickles guest-hosting The Tonight Show and the clip where Carson comes back and realized Rickles has broken his cigarette box-- tv  MAGIC. The guy in line recommended that we watch comedian Foster Brooks's drunk act on some of the old Dean Martin Roasts (turns out, he's very funny!). We eventually made it to go-time and ran in with the rest of the rabble that morning.

I grabbed these straight from the website, and here are some of the things that I saw:

Oversized, extremely old steamer trunk. I've gotten jealous about these things and thought about getting one ever since another of my coworkers, Doug, mentioned that his ex-wife Patty has an old turn of the century steamer trunk covered in ten's, twenties', and thirties' era destination stamps from all over Europe and the United States. Why, you may ask? What glamorous jet-setter might have once packed her best duds in such a trunk? Oh, just RUTH ETTING. She lived in the same hotel they did in California for awhile in the mid to late seventies' and Doug and his wife became friends of hers. WHY. WHY WAS I BORN IN THE EIGHTIES'. This trunk didn't belong to America's Sweetheart of Song, but it's a real pip of a case nonetheless!



A chair among chairs! This buddy had raised gold and green, tapestry-like print all over the upholstery, and is wider in the seat and taller in the back than it has any right to be. All the furniture in the house is completely CUCKOO, in case you wondering, and this is a pretty prime example.

Another piece that tugs at my heartstrings even now? This 1864 square piano:


Ugh! SO. GORGEOUS. Square pianos are my favorite shape that they come in, and don't you know that is a crying shame because the height of their popularity was about 150 years ago. Meaning...you're not going to find one of these just sitting on the street corner, friends! This was priced at $2,000, but it makes me want to take a loan and get it nonetheless. Look at the legs, for goodness sake!!


I would have bought this bullfighter and senorita painting set in a heartbeat, but they were $75 apiece. They're real oil paintings, not the flat cardboard print kind you used to be able to get at department stores!


You should have seen Sus and I leaping through the house looking for these, and our sincere, sadsack little faces as we realized they were beyond out means. Still! What glamour! What drama! They looked even better in real life!


Another crazy painting. There was not a blank wall in the entire house-- if it wasn't covered in flocked wallpaper, it was hung with pictures and commemorative dishes and knick-knacks. I'm just now seeing that horseshoe under the peacock on the left! Dang. I have peacocks like these painted in white and pink hanging in the pink tile bathroom at my house. That sofa you can see peeking out from the edge of the photo frame was $50, btw. WHY CAN'T I BUY ALL THE SOFAS.


These lamps were sold by the time I got to them (I know I don't need one, but I was impressed at its sale-ability in the first five minutes of the doors being open!), there was another just like this one to complete the pair. Look at the gorgeous base and matching shade!




Kitsch little wall plaques. Does anyone know what these are called? I'm a sucker for the raised plastic style pictures like this. And I love that it's not a set so much as it's just two of the same one.


The bedroom had this K-I-L-L-E-R suite of furniture, all French Provincial-as-done-by-Liberace. See the curio cabinet in the corner? The purple rose bedspread? The gold brocade half-curtains? IF I COULD ONLY HAVE HALF THE CURTAINS IN THIS HOUSE.


We saw not one but TWO chaise longues, in different rooms, but obviously the same models in different colors. Such a wealth of crazy furniture! Neither one looked so dusty in real life, I think the pictures make them look a little shabbier than they were in person. Check out the shag carpeting in either photo.



There were also some for-real antiques mixed in with the kitsch classics. Here's a baby bed that one of the women in line kept talking about before we got into the sale-- it's always weird when you see that another collector in line has a TOTALLY different set of priorities for the sale than you do. It's almost kind of a relief-- "Yay! She doesn't care about the Liberace stuff! I am so raking up!"



Please note the red shag carpet in pristine condition, and the yellow flocked wallpaper. TO DIE. FOR.

So! There's all the news that's fit to print about that Bellevue sale. Sus and I did get some stuff, but I'll have to post about it tomorrow! Some of the things we got are even picture here! ((dramatic music cue))

What do you think we got from this sale? Which items would you have lined up for if you had the chance? Did you hit any completely crazy sales this weekend? Let's talk!

That's all for today, I'll see you kids back here tomorrow. Til then!

18 comments:

  1. I want... No I NEED those peacocks on the wall.

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    1. Ha, I love them! And they come in all colors and finishes. Peacocks for the win!

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  2. I do love a time-capsule house. That's what I liked about the homes of the oldest people in my family. They never redecorated.

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    1. I love that it's like "well, this is what look I like. I'm DONE!" I hope I eventually settle on something, haha!

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  3. Spoiler alert: The little Japanese Samurai figurine by the lamp lives in my living room now.

    Great post about one amazing sale. It was such an exciting atmosphere and all of the stuff in that house was insane! I wish we had a photo of that Greek-style wall mural they had in the dining room. Very neat. Now I'm wondering if it was even Greek at all... there was so much stuff to look at!

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    1. I hope we get to go to another crazy one of these again!!

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  4. oh man, WHY didn't i go to that one!! i was so sure i wouldn't be able to go to any because of work when i got off early i just bolted for the nearest. i can't wait to see what you got!

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    1. I'm not sure how much stuff was left on the second day-- the prices were so low, everything was getting snapped up like crazy! Still, it sure was neat to see the inside of the house.

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  5. Whoa. It's like Liberace, Elvis, and Zsa Zsa Gabor had a threesome and the resulting baby decorated this house! I LOVE it! For the record, I'd have gone without lunch for a month to buy the matador and flamenco dancer!
    I know what you mean about getting excited when you realize that you have less competition than expected! Actually had a lady insult mid century as 'not antique'in the shop the other day! She said she hated places that had a lot of it because they look "like my mamaw's yard sales". I'd love to go to her mamaw's yard sales! Most people around here are only interested in stuff like that baby bed and the chairs and tables in the last photo...unfortunately it seems to result in the sale companies telling the families to throw out the other stuff or taking it to thrift stores. And, btw, we NEVER have tag sales around here only ding dang good ole boy chintzy auctions. >blows a raspberry< Jealous.
    Oh, and that red shag? EXACTLY the same as what I ripped out of my now sewing room a few months ago. It broke my heart, but it was FAR gone and had even bled onto the lighter hall carpet! And then there's the blue and white shag that was in the other bedroom. I mourn their loss. Luckily the master bedroom's mossy avocado sculpted is still intact and pristine! Lush!

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    1. Haha, EXACTLY. And I'll never understand people throwing stuff out that I would actually pay them money for-- I've been called out for looking in the commerical dumpster before looking in the house on more than one occasion! One man's trash, right?

      I'm glad the one carpet was salvagable in your house. I bet it's wonderful!!

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  6. "This photo is like what the inside of my mind looks like." I had to laugh at that quote!! What a great sale. I have a chair much like that tapestry and wood piece but my fabric is a green velvet (!). I also have an ivory French Provincial bedroom set- maybe my tastes are more Liberace than I thought!!! ;)

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    1. Re: Liberace: Hey, your taste and mine both! :) I can't get enough of that kind of stuff, and boy, was this the sale to indulge in it, right?

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  7. So much beauty to behold. I love that lamp and all the couches! Gorgeous collection!

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    1. The couches. Whoo, boy, the couches. I'm thinking about just now how MANY pieces of furniture there were in that one house!

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  8. I would buy EVERYTHING. I was born in '76 and we had dining room chairs upholstered very similar to the green brocade one. I love the mid-to-late 70s for decorating...had a red shag rug in my childhood bedroom :)

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    1. I want a red shag rug in my bedroom NOW! I love how over-the-top that era was in terms of interior decorating... you would find something fit for Louis XVI in even the most normal houses! It must have been a lot of fun.

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  9. We definitely had the bullfighter painting in our house during the 70's (plus a Conquistador)-- but wow, I've never seen that seƱorita painting and it's the best!

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    1. Oh, that's fabulous! It's a really cool picture. I wonder who ended up buying them, I didn't get to go back the second day to see if they were still there!!

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