Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Lost & Found

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was working for a retailer helping to clean out their visual warehouse. This got some of you got very excited. Maybe it was the idea of me doing actual labor. For those people I will mention that in the morning I would shower before I went to work, change my shirt at lunch time and shower as soon as I got home because I could not sit down in my own house due my complete filthiness. Still excited?

But that is neither here nor there, I know what you are really curious about is "What did I get!?" Here is a sampling:

A box of drapes that used to cover dressing room doors. These will look good with my house exterior color. I have yet to open the box to see how big (or small) they are. I do know they are heavy so there must be quite a few, or just one really, really large drape.
An old French door. I needed this for the privacy screen on my deck . I pulled it out of the garbage at the warehouse.
A carpet remnant. I thought it was a whole carpet. I was tricked into taking it thinking it was something good. But I haven't thrown it away now either, have I.
A large basket. I thought this was an amazing find... until I took everything out of it at home to discover...
an enormous hole in the bottom. So it sits outside.


LARGE down filled pillow forms. There is one more, but it back by the dryer. I put every pillow form in tht dryer for a dirt dust off tumble on the highest heat setting to kill anything trying to live in it. That last one has a hole in it and has to be fixed before it can tumble. It can not join its friends until after because I wont' have cross contamination in my down sector.

Next I will need LARGE pillow covers.

Perhaps in this fabric? I saw this fabric on the left, and turned it down. Then I saw this pillow (on the right) and grabbed it saying, "Any more of these?" At which point my friend pointed out I could make my own from the fabric I just threw in the trash pile. Huh? That gold edge really threw me. I took the fabric as well, but have no intention of sewing my own covers. They would never look this good.

Active life in a garage

Metallic finished table in silver/gold tones, VERY HEAVY.
In the box on top a 16' x 10.5' carpet pad. I do not have a carpet that size. I have two carpets that are 8' x 10'. Great, now I have a project to cut down carpet pads.

I already had the dog.

Antique clock fixture, missing clock. Lyle says it looks like its from Beauty & The Beast.

Great, now I have to re-think my entire Christmas trim...


Four padded bench seats in gold leather

My friend graciously pulled them for me when she heard they were referred to as "Hermes Gold Leather Cushions".

Two crystal chandeliers. I found these in a very large pot buried under (seriously) two tumbleweeds. They were twisted together and I was told to toss them out. I did. Right into my car. I've already stripped both of them of their crystals, painted them out chrome, redone the crystals on one and added black lampshades. It now sits on the floor in the house waiting for a very sturdy hook to hang it from the ceiling.
This one is kind of hard to see. So you may want to click on the photo to see it bigger. The photo shows 3 of the 9 painted panels of a Polo match (perhaps in Palm Springs?). The panels aren't "exact" matches end to end, but they were certainly painted to go in an exact order. Discovering that order only took about an hour on Sunday, arranging, rearranging, waling panels back and forth... The panels are about 3 feet tall and go for about 20 feet. I will need a new house to fit these down one continuous wall.

Now normally I crop all the photos I use to just show you what I think is most important to the story. But here I left them mostly "as is". I walked into my garage at the end of day 3 to dump more crap from the warehouse job and was taken aback. I had forgotten what a display hag's garage looked like! It had been years since I had a bolt or two of fabric or wallpaper leaning in the corner. A narrow path through the boxes to put away another frame with broken glass, chandeliers hanging with snorkel fins and masks, a table with three legs... Holy Shit! It had been years since I had amassed so much fabulous useless crap...

9 comments:

Rachel V. Olivier said...

And don't forget the chandelier christmas trees!

jason said...

wow...it sounds like a wonderland there to me!
I'm an inveterate junk stealer, I'm afraid.
Love your idea of painting the chandelier chrome.

A Lewis said...

Sounds a little like Show and Tell...which is something I'm also good at.

My adventures said...

I'm Kelly Green with Envy!! It's like going into grandmother's attic!! LOVE LOVE LOVE the polo paintings and the pillow, I'll have to look for some stripped fabric to make some myself! Yes, I can sew!!

Carolyn said...

Wow. I feel so inadequate. I am NOT crafty. I don't sew. I don't refinish. I don't salvage.
I go to IKEA.

dit said...

Now that is some good stuff. You find and do the best things Jim. Congrats on your finds. I am sure whoever you helped is more than thankful too.

dit said...

Oh I had a crush on a boy that played polo. Had it bad!

Michael Guy said...

YOU had me at 'gold leather bench seats'... I AM soooo scoping out your garage some day!

Nice haul!

Landis said...

fabulous useless crap.

perhaps the meaning of life.