In light of the two recent great deals I’ve found on Craigslist (the oak desk and the Stickley nightstand), I thought I’d take the opportunity to show you some of the other Arts & Crafts items I’ve acquired through the site. It’s no secret that it can be very expensive to furnish your bungalow home with period authentic antiques, but what I can tell you is that it doesn’t always have to be, and if you know where to look, there are great deals to be had. And Craigslist (CL as I like to call it) is a great place to start.
As I’ve mentioned before, probably the biggest and best thing we’ve found on Craigslist is our Craftsman Bungalow itself.
Here’s how the house looked in 2009 before we painted (above) and how it looks today after a new roof and paint job (below). I haven’t written about the process of painting the house, but will soon, so stay tuned…
Purchasing a home is obviously the biggest and most expensive purchase that you’d make, and it was for us too. And while I think we got a pretty good deal for the house, some of the other things I’ve found on CL were actually better deals, dollar-for-dollar.
This beautiful pair of copper lamps were being sold by a woman who had inherited them from her mother and was selling off a lot of her stuff because she was moving out of town.
When I went to pick them up, I was delighted when I turned them both over and saw The Mica Lamp Company logo stamped on the bottom! These two lamps are the Onion Lamp #006 (above left) and the Bean Pot Lamp #007 (above right).
I found our dining table and chairs listed on CL by a local consignment store. The huge expandable table and chairs are made from solid oak – some quarter sawn, some not – and we’ll have it for the rest of our lives.
The rug you see in the picture above was also a CL find that’s an authentic hand-woven Persian antique rug.
This oak sideboard is one of my favorite pieces in our collection. We bought it rom an older gentleman who told us that it’d been in the house he grew up in for as long as he could remember and that it belonged to his grandmother before that. It’s a mixture of solid quarter-sawn oak and quarter-sawn veneer and it’s absolutely gorgeous.
It was made in the late 1800’s by the Westhus Furniture Company in St Louis, Missouri. Although it was intended to be used in a dining room, we couldn’t use it there so it presently sits on the most prominent wall in our living room and is the focal point of the room.
Oh yeah, I should also mention that we found our happy-go-lucky black lab/rottweiler mix dog, Jersey, on CL. She’s our mascot here at The Craftsman Bungalow and after the house itself, she’s definitely our second best CL pickup!
Also in the living room, flanking either side of the fireplace are these two Morris chairs. They’re solid oak, very comfortable, and weigh a ton! They were priced so low because the family I bought them from had just gotten some new furniture and was eager to unload them. They were covered with cat and dog hair, but I thoroughly vacuumed them and then removed the soft velvet upholstery, ran it through the washing machine and air-dried them. They came out looking nearly brand new and are a welcomed addition to the collection.
When we acquired the antique sideboard I talked about earlier, we noted that the family we bought it from had a beautiful Art Noveau hanging light made by Quoizel in their dining room. We were both very fond of it, but when we found out that it cost around $500 new, we were a bit dismayed, but kept it in the back of our minds. Sure enough, about 6 months later I found that exact light on CL. It was hanging in our dining room the very next day.
As you may have noticed, I’ve had some pretty good luck finding period appropriate lighting on CL. This past summer I saw a listing posted by an electrician who had just removed 20 of these Rejuvenation “Rose City” fixtures (above) from a Whole Foods store across the river in Washington. About half of them had short stems and the rest had longer stems – ALL of them had these beautiful school-house glass shades on them. I ended up buying 14 of them. I got four of the long stem ones for my in-laws (they now hang their kitchen and entry way), sold five of the short ones, and kept the remaining five for us. One now hangs in our kitchen and the others in our bedrooms upstairs.
Another piece I’m particularly fond of is the Kennedy Rocking Chair. These chairs, made by the P & P Chair Company in North Carolina, were a favorite of the late President – so much so, that he is said to have owned 14 of them. He often gave them to friends and heads of state as gifts and even had one on Air Force One! These chairs have been in production since 1926 and are still mass-produced today, they retail for around $400 new.
I hope I’ve inspired you to seek out your local Craigslist site in search of antiques and reproductions to furnish your bungalow home. I check the listings multiple times a day and always get excited when I find something that has potential. My advice is to do a keyword search in the category your looking for, bookmark it, and check it early and often everyday. I’ve found some incredible deals and I know that there are many more out there across the country, so be diligent and good luck!
If you’ve never used Craigslist and have questions about how to search for things or how the site works, I’d be happy to help – leave a question below!
Happy Hunting!
