Picked Up a Two-Tiered Shade for a Favorite Lamp

I had Friday off, so besides doing some errands, I managed to hit a local estate sale advertised as full of "Mid Century Modern."  That label pulled in dealers and pickers from everywhere, including a couple women from Baltimore who were right in front of me, and someone else from New Jersey.  I managed to get #27, but it was almost an hour before I got through the door.  Interesting sale in an old apartment turned into a condo. Even with the late number, I still got a few things, including this lampshade.

I have been watching for one that has the three "bumps" on the top structure.  That feature makes it sit correctly on the milk glass difusers  found on some mid century lamps like my brass and black floor lamp, a gift from my nephew Dave (thanks again Dave).

The shade was in excellent shape, and the price was relatively high.  But I never see these locally, and my only other option was to buy online and pay about the same and also have to cover shipping costs.  So, I paid the price.  I think it was worth it.

Here it is on the lamp.  The atomic finial is one I already had, but I think it looks good on there.

Looking good!

By the way, I see that I'm one away from having 200 followers here on the blog, and 75 over on Facebook. I guess it's almost time for a giveaway to celebrate!  Stay tuned...

New Love Seat, Pole Lamp, and a TV Pole

Hi there loyal Uncle Atom reader!  I won't recite all the reasons Uncle Atom has been wallowing in lameness this past month, but I needed to take a break.

Project wise, I haven't finished anything new, and I haven't gotten out to any sales either.

But, I do have a few photos I can share.

I mentioned before I had quite a haul from the estate sale where I got the vintage fridge.

Here's the white vinyl love seat.  It was part of a set that included a turquoise sofa, and orange and turquoise chairs, all of which were bought by others at the sale.

The wood is in pretty nice shape, and the cushions don't have any tears, just a little wear in a couple of places.

The previous owners had this in the basement party room, and I had the joy of cleaning off a pretty heavy layer of old cigarette smoke.  Mr. Clean erasers did a nice job overall.

I also used the erasers on this white Stiffel tension pole lamp, which was also coated in smoke.

Once I went over the pole and lamps with the eraser, the yellowish tint was all but gone.  I like the difusers in this lamp.

This last item came from eBay.

I stumbled across this tension pole designed to hold an old tube-style portable television, and I had to have it. Luckily there was no bidding competition.

A "portable" TV would hang by it's handle from the two brass hooks (I've inverted them here to loop over the top of this TV), and the base sat on a flat piece of metal sticking up from the lower part of the pole.  I managed to use some strong hook and loop webbing and mounting screws on the back of the flat screen TV to get it mounted to the pole.  I have another piece of hook and loop holding the base of the TV to the flat metal piece.

So far no issues, although I'd really like to clean up the look of the back of the TV.  If I really get ambitious, I might try to cover the black TV edges with a light wood grain or some other color besides black. I'll have to ponder that - don't want to ruin the TV with something that would look cheesy.   For now, it's kinda nice to have a working TV in the Rumpus Room again.

Chilling at a Recent Estate Sale - Finds and New Friends!

I decided to hit a local estate sale on its first day, the morning of the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Arriving about 30 minutes before the door opened, I got number 49 -- ugh.  The ad made no mention of mid-century stuff, but it indicated a full house and 1940s-60s things, so I figured I'd stick it out.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long before I got in, and I was able to nab some pretty great stuff in my first swing through the house, including a nice white vinyl danish style loveseat, another pole lamp, several small items (details and pics in an upcoming blog post, I promise), and this nicely done chalk nudie picture I procured for the man cave (I have altered the image to keep from appealing to prurient interests or offending anyone, and to keep this here blog's PG rating).  The signature on the bottom of the painting belongs to the estate owner, and judging by the projects I saw in the basement, I'd say the guy had some artistic talent!

All this stuff was in the basement, which is where I tend to go first at an estate sale.  I like to let the others fight over things upstairs while I get the cheaply priced things on the outskirts.

The house had so much stuff that I paid, loaded up my car, and went back in to peruse some more.  I spent three and a half hours there on Saturday morning, went back one more time that afternoon, and then I went back on Sunday for more!  I'm telling you, the place was packed, and from what I could see, it was obvious the owners never ever had a garage sale.  Bless them for keeping it all around for us to pick from.

My Sunday visit was necessary because I had to help a couple of hired laborers haul this beautiful beast out of the basement!!!

It's a 1957 General Electric Combination refrigerator with a lower freezer.  How about that turquoise/mint color?!  It wasn't priced, but I asked the guy running the sale if it was available and he named a VERY attractive price for it, with the understanding that I had to arrange to get it out of the basement and he wouldn't provide any labor.  So I bought it immediately!  He said it works (a neighbor told someone else she didn't think it works), but either way, it was too good a price to pass up, even with the money I spent to hire the laborers.

The fridge was not plugged in.  Instead, it was used to store all kinds of stuff, from cleaning products to candles to light bulbs.  My fingers are crossed.  I have a new friend coming over this weekend to help me get it off the truck.  I've heard it's wise to wait before plugging in a fridge that has been on its side, so I'll let it re-acclimate to the upright position for a while before seeing if it will get cold.

The shelves are half circles of aluminum, and they rotate like a lazy susan.  Too cool, huh?!!!   It also has a foot pedal which opens the door for you when your hands are full.  What a great idea.  It's too bad that in this modern age of ours, we can't have such wicked cool design and neat features.  What's up with that?

I also met some very cool people who bought even more than I did!  Mark and his wife sell some on that auction site and they collect mid-century things too.  I pointed them to this blog, and Mark got inspired to start his own blog as a result.  Check out his blog here.

Next to my fridge in the basement was this great vintage Kenmore top-loading, portable dishwasher.  I posted about it over at the vintage Automatic Washer Forum (yes, there is one of those, and it's full of passionate collectors with a lot of knowledge!).  Check it out http://www.automaticwasher.org/  but come back to finish this blog post, OK?

I love the gold-flecked Formica on the top, and the control panel and the handles and lock on the front. Very stylish.

The lid pops up, and the rack inside is pink!  The operating manual was still there, and it too was available at a very reasonable price.  In fact, Jeff in Arlington, who I met when I was giving away the last portable dishwasher I found, decided to buy this at the sale.  He arrived on Sunday morning while I was getting the fridge out of the basement.  Great guy, and he was thrilled to get the dishwasher.  Another one saved from the landfill!  He's also volunteered to help me move the new old fridge from the truck onto our back porch.

The house also had these wonderful turquoise/mint metal kitchen cabinets and  matching oven/range.  I asked if any of them were for sale, but the owners plan to rent the home so it sounds like a remodel won't be happening, at least not immediately.

I better wrap up this long post, but I have some more estate sale finds to show you all in an upcoming post. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Another Estate Sale Find - Bertoia-style Homecrest Outdoor Chairs

I had Friday off with plans to drive up to Pennsylvania for the weekend and visit with some college buddies, but before I left home I had a little time and visited a local estate sale.  I picked up a couple of things, including these great chairs and table for a great price!

I'm no expert on designers - do any of you have a guess at who made these?  The yellow covers on the two chairs are like new.

I'm hoping the green covers will clean up better, but they are faded.  It would be great to know if you can still buy this kind of outdoor cover.

The chairs with the green covers are different from each other and different from the chairs with the yellow covers, but all four are in nice shape.  These will be perfect for our courtyard when I get that built.

Some Recent Estate Sale Finds

I've been averaging a couple of estate sales per weekend, and I haven't come home empty handed yet.

Here are a few acquisitions --

Two boxes of Super 8 family home movies. It's sad that people don't keep stuff like this.

The house had a bunch of equestrian stuff, and from what I can tell from the reels that have labels, a bunch of the films were shot at riding events in the late 1960s -- early 1970s.  Oddly, at another estate sale the same day I picked up an 8mm projector and screen, and that was before I found the films!

I'll try to set up the projector and try out some of these films to see what we've got.

Yellow bathroom scale for pretty cheap - it's just the right color for our basement bathroom with its light yellow and black tile.   It needs a little cleaning, but I've seen worse.  I love the diamond stenciling.

Unfinished pieces of knotty pine.  I've been in a couple of houses that featured lumber and woodworking tools.  The house I was in today had a very organized shed out back, and I noticed some tongue and groove panels up high on a rack, and sure enough, it was this knotty pine.  I got a very reasonable price on it.  It's unfinished, so while it's not quite enough to cover a wall, even if I do a short four-foot run from the floor halfway up a wall, it will be great to have if I find some more knotty pine.  We have an unfinished area in the basement where I can visualize knotty pine walls.

Vintage dishwasher.

It's the kind on wheels which you move close to the sink, connect a hose, plug in to an outlet and run.  It was cheap, bought during the last half hour of a sale where the old house will be demolished.  Our current dishwasher is broken, and I love the graphics on the face of this thing.

 Is it practical?  We'll have to see.  I hope it will fit in the hole where our current broken dishwasher resides. Worst case, maybe I can scavenge it for parts to fix the built in one we have. Fortunately they're the same brand.  (I haven't replaced our dishwasher because every time I start researching new ones and I look through online reviews by current owners, I tend to learn that the circuit board has gone bad after only a year or so.  We haven't minded hand washing the dishes, but I would like the convenience of a dishwasher again.)

I shot a few photos of things I didn't buy, including this nice aqua oven which was in the house where I found the bread box.  It was priced around $100 -- hopefully someone saved it, maybe on half price Sunday.

Yesterday I saw this 1970s table and L-shaped bench for a breakfast nook.  For just $50 it looked like a good deal for someone.  Today, Sunday half-price day, it still didn't have a taker at $25.  Sad.

This convertible loveseat/sofa was also $50, and the upholstery looked good.  It was marked sold when I arrived this morning for half-price day.

I didn't try to fold it out, but the top part of the back folds backwards and then I think the rest of the sofa flattens out to make into a bed (?).