She said her furniture was old and not very stylish, but she liked it anyway.  It’d been with her for many many years.

She said she wanted to treat herself to a makeover… a birthday gift to herself.  A new look for the home she spends so much time in.  We asked her to leave for several hours while we pushed and shoved, angled and repositioned, hung and styled.

She had been on pins and needles while we worked, and could hardly wait to come home and celebrate a birthday that started with an “8.”  Let the party begin!  It’s NEVER ever too late to make your life more beautiful.

I love huge coffee tables… Big, bold and roomy, they have lots of space for decorating and styling, on top and underneath!!

But sometimes such a big piece just isn’t practical. It can take up waaay too much space, not allowing play room for the kids or a spot to do your daily workout.  If you need flexibility… to be able to quickly and easily open up a sofa bed, make room for a crowd on game day or work on a big project, a large and heavy table in front of your seating just won’t work.  But… we need some kind of surface nearby, for a cup of tea, glass of wine or snacks, don’t we?

Have you thought about grouping a few smaller, lightweight tables that are easy to pick up, move, remove or reposition depending on what is going on in the room? It’s a great look and SO flexible!  Maybe these pictures will help you think about new options in your living spaces.

Close together, angled, spread apart, high, low, round or square, matching or not, these combinations just plain work!  They offer such flexibility and look a lot less typical than having one-large-coffee table.

You can also group end/side tables.  Here, 2 small tables fill the space between chairs very well.

Another option is a cute little “C” shaped table that can be pulled up close to the sofa… the lower section can slide underneath. They’re functional, but you hardly know they are there. Like these from Room and Board:

Crate and Barrel:

 And West Elm:

What kind of tables do you have in your living space?

I love love love flea markets, thrift shops, consignment shops, garage sales… you name it.  If they have cool old used things for sale, I’m there!  Digging through piles of shtuff and imagining where items could go, how they could be freshened up, painted, reupholstered or even repurposed is a blast.  Waaayyy better than a furniture store any day!

SOoo, when these barstools appeared in a vendor’s booth at the Sunday Irvine Flea Market (now moved to the Great Park area next to the giant orange balloon… every 1st Sunday of the month) you can imagine the heart palpitations I was experiencing.  Just perfect for my client’s black, white and red kitchen, and with NO work to be done.  Guess what we paid for these vintage beauties????

$30. For all three. YES, you read that right.

If you’ve shopped for  barstools lately, you know how expensive they can be, especially anything unique or repurposed.  For example, I always love to look at the NapaStyle catalogs and websites… they have loads of really cool and unique items, like these barstools made from old wine barrel staves.

Gorgeous, yes, but $279 each plus tax and $30 shipping each. WOW.  Do the math… that adds up fast!

I know we all splurge sometime on those special, just perfect items.  But don’t forget the rewarding projects, unique products and fabulous bragging rights that come with scavenging.  It feels so good to rescue something from a trip to the dump and re-imagine it into a FAB one-of-a-kind that none of your neighbors will have. And when you tell them what you paid…  now thats fun!

LOVE to see what rescues you have come across. Send pictures!