Road trips are the best
Trust me on this, vintage furniture shopping is the best way to spend a hot desert day in Arizona! As the summer begins, and snow birds start packing up their desert homes, Arizona is the place to be for some of the best, low priced, vintage scavenger hunting - and I'm sure there are some amazing finds further East, North or South, but this California girl can only drive so far!
For LA residents, some of the great vintage furniture shopping options are at the Rose Bowl flea market or the various mid-Century Modern boutiques in Palm Springs, but Arizona has air conditioning and low prices all in one.
My specific search criteria is always that "diamond in the rough", I want a chair that has good strong bones, but needs a lot of love and attention. The best is when you find that one chair that everyone has walked by and ignored, but it has just that right amount of potential and I know I can turn it into something completely unrecognizable... a cinderella chair story.
This bright chair caught my eye because of it's cute little shape, but the turquoise paint was too loud, it was missing a back panel, and needed some beautiful fabric to spruce it up... a perfect project for "Ma Chaise design" - sadly it didn't make it home in the end because both my car and the rented Uhaul trailer were already full, and sometimes you just have to say no!
Walking through my favorite Scottsdale, Mesa and Phoenix Vintage Mall's, I also get inspired by all the history: Objects from the 40's, 50's and 60's, beautifully preserved or lovingly restored. But it is a very short step from "I NEED to have this", to having that same treasure gather dust in the back of your already cluttered bookshelf... maybe that's why I have so many bookshelves in my house.
As the saying goes "One man's treasure is another man's trash", and it's so true!!! I am constantly amazed at what people can do with what was once trash but has been lovingly transformed. My particular poison is chairs, but for some folks it's lighting...
And then sometimes you find that perfect chair, and I do mean perfect! That one that I can't bring home because let's be honest, it's already perfection.
It can be so inspiring to see that others have the same desire to transform as I do, and that they have done it beautifully. It makes me want to rush home and create something equally as perfect.
This past weekend in Arizona was spent treasure hunting, but also catching up with family and loved ones, eating guacamole, drinking gin tonics by the pool, laughing, and special little moments. So it's not always JUST about the shopping, sometimes it's the thrill of a good road trip!
And here's another saying that is so true, "It's not always about the destination, sometimes it's about the journey".
