Renovate Brooklyn! Day Six: J'adore Craig's List!

This past weekend was a much needed respite from the Brooklyn renovation. We took a minute to shake the dust from our hair, chistle the lead paint from our eyes, and relax a little bit. John is an Olympic-relaxer. He has received numerous compliments and awards for his ability to relax like a pro. I am actually a terrible "relaxer" so I spent the weekend "relaxing" by trolling the local antique stores and thrift shops up in Port Jervis, and scouring Craig's List for unknown gems. I am hoping to discover a turkish Oushak rug that someone had foolishly posted on Craig's List for $50.00 instead of $5,000.00, but have decided not to hold my breath on that front.

                 

Above: Gorgeous Oushak Rug                 Above: Pretty Average IKEA Rug

I did, however, find a perfectly acceptable IKEA Jute Rug on Craig's List for $40.00, usually $100.00 in the store, which I thought was a perfect price, and would look just smashing in our new living room area. (This is probably the only time I will ever openly advocate for IKEA, so mark it down in the record book.) The rug that I initially laid down, shown in the previous posting, is actually perplexingly, irrevocably dirty, you just can't tell from a distance. In person, it definitely isn't a thing of beauty so I thought a replacement was in order.

Today I'm also going hunting for a pair of vintage arm chairs to replace the big green loveseat in the living room. It is a funny thing: we did so much last week and I was thrilled with how everything was coming together until I took our "after" photos. Suddenly I realized how off the furniture really looked. I mean, it was a huge improvement, but now it is a much better room with all of the wrong furniture. So the first thing I'm trying to find is a pair of chairs that are in better scale to the room. I found the chairs shown below on Craig's List and am going to visit the pair on the left today in between meetings on the UES. The other pair are located in Jersey, so that visit will have to wait for another day, but I am liking both. I will report back.

Tonight, we get back to work!