Unexpected Bargains

I'm SO glad you all stopped by to see the patio! It was a lot of fun sharing with y'all, so thank you for that. I'm really excited to tell you that I sent in pics of my finished patio project to the Birmingham News and she emailed me to say she'd love to feature me again in the Spaces Room Redo section. I've been in there twice already and it was such a thrill to be in the local paper. I'll definitely tell you all about it when it happens in the next few weeks...... After being on the other side of town a couple weeks ago, I decided to stop by The Salvation Army and just see what was there. I spotted this pretty chair and ottoman, looked at the pricetag of $100 and said....hummmmm, that sure is a good bargain there, too bad I already have plenty of chairs and ottomans and don't have room for more. I peeked under the cushion and it was made by Sherrill, which is a really good line of furniture. I went home and slept on it...literally, woke up about 3:00 (which is not so unusal for me in this stage of my life :( I wake up at all times of the night) and decided I really needed that chair. It was a bargain and I figured out what I could do to make it all work. I really liked the fabric too. The chair and ottoman we have in our bedroom is too big for the space and won't fit in this downstairs bedroom where I had another slipcovered chair and ottoman that were smaller. So, I thought it all over and decided I would sell the larger set in our bedroom, move the smaller one up there and put this set in the downstairs guestroom. I know...confusing, but it all worked out. You don't often find such a great condition chair and ottoman for this price and quality. I talked to my hubby about my great plan and he said go for it. On a side note, I have some fun money that I've earned stashed just for me to use for this purpose, so I guard it and use it sparingly, but I thought this was a good time to bring it out.
Went back to the store first thing the next morning, and further purusing led me under the ottoman where a label was on there from Birmingham Wholesale Furniture, probably the most high-end furniture store here in town. The customer's name was on there, as well as the date (2001) when it was purchased. Good find. Told them I wanted to purchase it & a nice man helped me put it in my trunk with the lid tied down and I brought it home.

Where it now sits in our downstairs guestroom. And can you believe how perfectly it goes in there? And when I get tired of this fabric, it will be easy to slipcover. Oh, and I put the old chair and ottoman on Craigslist for $100 and got 2 calls the next day. The first lady came over and bought it on the spot. It was a 12 year old chair, so I was happy that it ended up being an even swap for this chair.
I was going to show you this room anyway, so now you get to see the new chair in the grandma room. I call it that, because this is where all the extra stuff ended up and it sorta reminds me of a grandma's room. This bedroom is downstairs in our house & both guestrooms really come in handy when my hubby's 3 kids come to visit or we have guests in town. Otherwise, we don't need them all that much, but it's nice to have the space. If I was doing this all from scratch, I'd probably use totally different colors now and go with something more cheery, like light blue or green, but it all still works together, so I doubt I'll change it anytime soon, since I already had most all of this. This is my reading chair...where I do my Bible studies in the morning. It's a nice peaceful place to get some quiet time. There's a dropdown in the ceiling downstairs (I'm sure to cover some heating/AC pipes) and so it created a challenge for dressing this window. I opted to just do one panel, since I didn't want to cover up any of the window with another one. It works OK for now, so I haven't changed it. The window fabrics from Tuesday AM are the only thing I bought for this room.
Gold mattelasse spread & shams, along with a Raymond Waites floral comforter cozy up the room. I originally started with this coverlet in the masterbedroom and decided to go with cream, so all of this moved down here & fortunately it went well with my old fabrics that I already had.
This is basically the room where I put all the leftover lamps and accessories from the rest of the house, but it turned out pretty cozy. When we first moved in here, this was my junk room & looked like a store. It took a few months to get everything cleaned out of here & ready for guests. That needlepoint pillow was a yardsale find & it really doesn't go in here colorwise, but I like it so much I threw it in here anyway.
Right side of the bed is just a simple round table covered in 2 tablecloths that my mom made for me, along with a $5 yardsale lamp. In fact, a lot of the things in this room are yardsale finds, so they ended up in here.

Cherry nightstand that I picked up antiquing along with the cherry bed that was my hubby's & they work well together.
It's a cute little piece. I have a thing for little antique tables.
Sconce picked up long ago with a topiary and iron finials.
My grandma's old sewing machine serves as a little side table with a lamp & accessories. This is one of two family pieces that I own. Our family didn't have much to pass down, so I treasure this and a side table in my livingroom.
You might remember the story I told you about the oak furniture in my cottage guestroom? Well, this is the 4th piece of furniture I got from the college girl for $50 (all 4 pieces). This is just an old dresser, nothing special, but it does have a pretty beveled mirror. The wood finish was really awful, so I took some walnut polyshades and went over it with a couple of coats & really improved the looks of it. The prints on either side of the dresser came from yardsales too (and were from Bombay).I've decided I'm going to paint this dresser a pretty olive gray green, so that will be another project on my list. The wood is not great, so it would probably look better painted anyway. I can't believe I've had these old pieces for 20 years now, but I have no urge to replace them with anything else. I think it's cute and it fits this room perfectly. Most of those boxes came from yardsales too, as well as the wicker & iron tray.
Right outside this room in the hallway are 2 of my favorite yardsale finds. These 2 bird prints are original watercolors from the 50's and I got them both for $15 several years ago. I still love them.

I'd love to just totally redo this room one day in soft blues or greens and creams (maybe), but for now this will do. I really can't justify buying all new stuff for this room when it serves the purpose just fine.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the Granny guestroom!

******************************************* Today is a very special day for me and my hubby, Peter. It's our third anniversary and I'm very happy that the Lord has blessed us with each other. We've had our ups and downs, but God has been faithful and will continue to be faithful and I look forward to us growing older together. Happy Anniversary, honey! Our honeymoon in St. Maarten, June 2005. I wrote about our wedding last year in an anniversary post, if you want to know more about us.