Long before we opened the store, I was a vintage shopper. I went to auctions, sought out estate sales, and never passed a garage sale without stopping. I was always buying things I had no use for just because they were beautiful and fabulous. I’m not talking about needing things, I just couldn’t stand seeing them all forlorn and dusty and unloved.

Fast forward to Gracious, and now I can ‘rescue’ all these things, bring them to the store, and know that one of our wonderful customers will feel the same way and take them home and give them the love and respect they deserve!

Since I now basically shop for a living, I thought I would have a really hard time letting go of all the treasures I find. Amazingly, this hasn’t turned out to be true. It turns out I feel more like a matchmaker, ‘adopting’ these treasures out . But that doesn’t mean we don’t keep things. OK, I keep more than Deirdre. I am in the too much is just enough school of thought, whereas Deirdre is the less is more type. In fact, if I can get Deirdre to keep something, I know I have really found something good!  I remember bringing in some vintage gold bamboo cocktail forks, opening the box to show her, and her saying don’t bother putting those in inventory. Score!

On the other hand, some lovely Japanese temple lamps, some stag handled silverware, a silverplate ‘egg’, a couple of fine oil paintings and some turquoise Chinese dogwood plates have all found their way to my home. But the main problem I have seems to be chairs. I don’t really need to have another chair in my living room. But for some reason, I tend to bring chairs home, mainly because they are fabulous and I’d like to have them around. Here are some of the contenders that I have considered:

The Scalamandre Louis Chairs:

The fabric on these chairs blew me away. I purchased them at a wonderful old Lake Washington home that I loved. They were a bright yellow, with greens and a touch of coral. Now I have none of these colors in my living room, but I have never been afraid of mixing colors or patterns. But as much as I tried, I could not make these work. There were three of them. One is rocking a bedroom in Laurelhurst, and the other two are head chairs at a dining table.

The Green Grecian Toile Chair:

I picked up this chair in a lovely Highlands home. Again, it was the fabric. The scale was right, but the toile was way too white. It sat in my living room for a full two weeks before I was able to accept that. But I loved it so much! It now sits in my Mother’s Bainbridge Island home and I visit it often.

The Unusual Asian Toile Chair:

I picked this up nearby. It has been in my living room for about a week now.  Again the fabric is great. This time the fabric totally works with my room, but the size is all wrong. It wants to be in a bedroom or smaller den. Not my living room. I can finally accept that. It will be showing up at Gracious as soon as I can let it go.

What chairs have you loved?