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Post by pooka on Sept 5, 2020 15:10:01 GMT -5
For years I've looked high & low for a couch for my basement sitting room. I didn't want a heavy upholstered piece to have to pack down the stairs. My grandma had a smaller wooden framed one years ago. Kind of a ranch style, with wide, flat & low arms. But it was just a wooden frame, with one long seat cushion, & one long back cushion. The down side was it was too short to stretch out on. It was given away years ago. Every since I've looked & even mulled over making something. All I really wanted was a simple kind of long low bench with a long cot mattress of sorts to sit on, & some big pillows or cushions to lean back on. It could have been as simple as an old door set on some short legs. I could add some low arms & back. Then get an off the shelf cot or RV mattress of some kind. I've got loads of pillows to use already. But I just kept on looking & thinking. Well some weeks ago, I went into one of the Goodwill stores for a quick walk through before I went to work. Nothing of note out front. I walked in the back where the furniture & framed art are. There in the back I spot something that catches my eye. My breath gets a little shorter. As I walk around & give it the once over. I hem & haw in my mind. Should I. Shouldn't I. It's perfect, but I shouldn't. I'll never have a better chance. When I'm caught in this kind of dilemma, I do my best to walk away, & mull it till the next day. Then come back, & usually splurge if it still there the next day. Well it was, & I did. It was too big to haul in or on my car, so I just took the cushions, & had to get my cousin to pick it up the next day. Unfortunately I had to trash the cushions, but the frame was the thing. It's kind of hard to describe. It's kind of like a low wooden daybed. The back is a ladder of strait spindles between two long rails. The The ends/arms are a lattice of spindles that seems to mimic Rattan. Along the bottom is one long arched rail where the spindles poke through along the bottom. There are three between the four front legs. The seat is three square frames with those S springs covered with a plastic kind of mat stapled over them. So I had to improvise cushion till I can figure out what I need.
This is it sitting in the middle of the floor. One of the back spindles if broken, but can be glued easily enough. The canvas has got the one tear, & one spring is broken at it's end, but it's sitable. I like a firm seat, so I took a couple of thin plywood strips I had & cut them to cover the seat. I had an old cot mattress that's' probably older than me for the seat, then laid a roll up pad I had over that. I've been an all too avid collector of pillows of various sizes. The results while perhaps might not make any fashion magazines, it's surprisingly comfortable. As for the most important feature is it's length. The seating area is seventy seven inches long. Plenty long enough for my six foot two frame to stretch out on with room to spare.
I've got it sitting up on some of those plastic bed risers so it's not too low at least until I can get a proper thicker seat cushion. It's got a sort of exotic look to it. It's got some honest wear, but nothing moan about. One of the little wooden buttons is missing, but I ain't crying. It's got a month & year of 1980 stamped on the frame, but no other clue who made or sold it. I've never seen anything like it before, but I love it. So the search is over, unless I find another one for upstairs. The couch up there has it's issues. It needs to be redone or thrown out, even though I really like it. The topper to this story is I was going to pick it up with my cousin on Tuesday, one of my normal days off, but when I went to work on Monday they ask me to work the next day. I said I would if I could leave for a while to go get it. So by working that extra day pretty much paid for the couch. It cost me the grand sum of $65. It may not sound like a lot, but it's a powerful big chunk for stingy me to let go of for a want & not a dire need. But it was a powerful & long standing want.
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Post by voodoochikin04 on Sept 5, 2020 15:13:11 GMT -5
I've never seen a couch like it. Looks like what you'd see sitting on the porch of a tahiti ocean hut.
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Post by pooka on Sept 5, 2020 15:28:20 GMT -5
It's different. That's a plus for me. I like unique. The other seating I've got down there are two lounge chairs. They're called Ranch Oak style made by a company call Brandt in Fort Worth, Texas. I posted a bit on them when I got the earlier this year. I'll post some pics later, but it's time to go to work. Yesterday I got a couple of cool vintage arm chairs at Goodwill. They are more like lounge chairs made of American white oak by a company out of Fort Worth, Texas. The firm was called A. BRANDT COMPANY, INC. The line of furniture is called RANCH OAK. It's got a rugged western styling with a modern flair. The line came out in 1938 & was made till the mid 80s when they went out of business. My two are most likely from the 60s. One has the original upholstery still. The other has been redone, but shows some wear. They're nearly indestructible being made of heavy white oak. They have a laid back simple style I like, & most importantly, they are very comfortable. A weird tie in is I have a vintage print of the light fixtures from the 1929 Art Deco styled Blackstone Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas. Some covet RANCH OAK furniture, & it can sell at a premium. I got them cheap at $25 & $35. You could add a zero to that as far as value to the right buyer. I got them because I love them. They are great to sit in, & most importantly, they are durable & cheap.
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Post by cinnabar on Sept 5, 2020 17:24:28 GMT -5
Looks comfy and sturdy, what more can a person ask.
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Post by Chuckie on Sept 5, 2020 22:29:07 GMT -5
Looks comfy and sturdy, what more can a person ask. Almost has a "Jenny Lind" look about it! Nice score!! CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by pooka on Sept 6, 2020 10:54:12 GMT -5
I had contemplated finding a cheap "Jenny Lind" bed, & cutting the foot board in half for the arms, but the head board for the back would have been too short to span the width, unless I cut it in half, & put some kind of filler piece in the middle. I am pleased with the style of this one though. I said I'd post some pics of my other seating of my hermit's cave. Here's my two Brandt Ranch Oak chairs. The fabric on the green one is original, because there's a label under the seat. The rust colored one I thought may have been redone, but now believe it's original too.
These are made of American white oak, so they wear like iron. The green chair is on wheels, so it's easy to shuffle around as needed. It sits pretty low with the seat at about fourteen inches high. The rust colored one is eighteen inches high. A more typical height for chairs. I bought the green one, but wasn't going to get the other, but when I went back to pick it up, I went ahead & got it too. They were only $25 & $35, so they were a bargain. If you try to buy them on the open market, you can typically ad a zero to those prices. The seemingly matching pillows are more thrift store finds.
I'm still shuffling pillows around to see what I like & what's most comfortable. The two in the center I got at the Goodwill in Leavenworth, KS when I visited Chuckie for the eclipse a couple years ago. They were a real comfort on the drive home when the springs in my car seat started feeling like they were cutting into my bony back side. This came with twelve cushion. Three for the seat. Three thin, & three thicker ones for the back, & two thinner ones at each end, & one tiny square one that I think was an excuse to use up the scrape fabric. But they were beyond hope, & had to go.
I'm a pack rat & easy living kind of guy. I kind of bristle at things being too formal & primpy. I can appreciate some fine things, but not in too formal surroundings. I'm a jean & T-shirt kind of guy, but I do like my silk & linen shirts. My hats run the gambit, from plain ball caps, to vintage fedoras, wool beret, beanie or English driving cap always worn backwards. I've even been known to wear a Scottish Tam. In short, I revel at being different. Life has too many flavors. It'd be a shame not to sample the richness that abounds. In some ways I'm a rock waiting for the world to pass by. In other ways, I'm a roaming adventurer in a never ending tale. Always an eye for the road less traveled.
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Post by nana on Sept 6, 2020 18:31:05 GMT -5
It’s a great feeling when you find something you’ve been looking for, especially something out of the ordinary like that. Modern furniture seems somehow kind of oversized and overstuffed. You probably couldn’t even buy something like that new at any price, because they don’t make it. It has nice, clean, spare lines. My mom would have liked it—she didn’t like things that looked heavy and thick-legged. She liked things light and airy. May you get plenty of enjoyment out of it!
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Post by pooka on Sept 7, 2020 9:40:24 GMT -5
I know today you can get most anything you like if you want to spend a few thousand dollars. In looking around for something I like, a vintage Mid Century Modern couch can go for one or two thousand & more. A lot of those are a bit too lightly built for my taste. I've seen a few I could go for, but not at those stratospheric prices. I ran across this pic of Bela Lugosi relaxing in his home in the 1930s. Now that's my kind of room. Sturdy ranch stye chairs with leather upholstery, & that big couch/daybed/bed. What ever you want to call it. Him being Hungarian, I suppose that's the eastern European or middle eastern lounging style of leisurely living. Big couches, maybe even on the floor. The Romans had something called a klinē or dinning couch. I did have to look that up. But they were a kind of fainting couches they would ring the dining room, or "triclinium. You could sit, or recline on one side. Before you ask, the racy painting of the nude, he had commissioned of Clara Bow, a famous starlet he had an affair with right before he became famous in the movie Dracula. I don't think she sat for it. But it's suppose to be her. He kept it all his life, through three wives. Where I got this pic, people were commenting that it probably smelled of cigars & Bourbon. I could live happily in that room.
One of my criteria for most furniture is being stoutly build. I don't want something with spindly leg, or so lightly built, I have to be too careful with it. I can abide a wide variety of styles, as long as it's at least interesting to look at & utilitarian. The top of the list though is it has to be comfortable. I've seen lots of great looking stuff, but when you sit down, it's so soft, it swallows you up. Or the back is too upright, so you can't lean back with ease. Some, the seat is too shallow for lounging. I've passed on lots of late Victorian sofas, because they were just too small. The seat were too shallow, or the springs were just too mushy. In short, they might be fine for sitting for tea or coffee, but not for general lounging & sleeping on. All the daybeds I looked at were too deep, as in twin size bed deep. I didn't want anything that big. This seat is twenty five inches deep. That's just right. Just a tad bigger than a cot mattress, but longer. I was thinking of lower arms, but these are growing on me. It kind of has the look of a small daybed, with a back added to one side.There's something called a hired man's bed from earlier eras that's about two foot wide. Unfortunately, those come at a premium if you cam find one. But that's kind of the idea I was searching for. As you said, "Modern furniture seems somehow kind of oversized and overstuffed." Too many of the lesser priced sofas you find are little more than blobs of fabric & foam. There's little style to them aside from looking like an unmade bed. To me they just look sloppy. They're usually cheaply made too. That may be fine for some, but not for me. I guess I'm a bit persnickety in my sense of style. I'm a bit of a lone wolf with my uncommon likes & dislikes, with an eye for the exotic. My limited budget forces me to be a bargain hunter, but that doesn't mean I have to give up my unique point of view. I follow no fashion mavens. I chart my own course. I live to please my own tastes. As I often say, to each his own.
I've never been a particular fan of Mid Century Modern furniture, but I've somehow collector a number of pieces that fit that description, because I liked the particular pieces. I've got a couple I'd like to get redone some time in the near future funds permitting. These two are top of the list. When I had to toss out my old recliner, I dug out the one on the left & threw a piece of plywood down on the seat & found some odd cushion at the thrift stores to make it usable in the interim. I like the style, proportions & angles. It's actually very comfortable with the right cushions. I could have sufficed with a long couch like this. Grandma's was similarly styled. The one on the right is a Carter Brothers scoop chair. They came out in about 1958, the year I was born. They sold for about twenty or twenty five dollars new. It's just a single piece of curved laminated plywood with peg legs screwed on. I've got a piece of fabric I'd like to use to redo it. Some collect chairs like this, because of the classics modern design. It's just one curved board on four legs The epitome of simple design. They also made a matching foot stool. Both these were on the curb for the trash man. Free is always the best price. I keep meaning to walk down the street to the upholstery shop a five doors down to see what it'll cost to fix up. Poking up behind these are a couple of 50s dinning chair that followed me home. the one on the left was also at the curb. The one on the right is a thrift store find. I can't recall what I paid, but it had to be pretty cheap. I also have a couple leopard print chairs, but they're not great sitting chairs. They just look cool. One needs a little work too. The tiny chairs are left overs from grandma. One from the 30s & one from the 50s or 60s.
Well I've rattled on for long enough. I guess it's the excitement of the new couch. I like to say I go looking for things I didn't know I wanted till I found them. And If you love something enough, you find a place or use for it, whether you need it or not. I mean who need a wooden Balinese water buffalo bell, but I've got one.
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Post by pooka on Sept 8, 2020 8:44:18 GMT -5
Sorry if I've run on with my long posts of late. I worked my two days off this past week, so it was twelve days straight. I've gotten a bit punch drunk in the process. I couldn't turn down the extra pay. I've been coming home exhausted physically, but my mind is still racing. I'm too tired to sleep, but not too tired to type.
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Post by nana on Sept 9, 2020 20:20:19 GMT -5
You always have something interesting to say, and I usually learn something I didn’t know before from you when you “rattle on”, so type away!
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Post by pooka on Sept 10, 2020 0:14:07 GMT -5
I'm kind of an idiot savant of sorts. A rolling stone that gathers lots of moss, but it's sometimes debilitating. I aspire to know. Unfortunately that can be a double edged sword. There are things I wish I could unknow or unsee. The world can be a violent, hideous & sadistic place. I fill my mind with endless clutter to soften the burden. Sometimes I wish I could be an every day idiot. A sheep among sheep, but we are what & who we are. There's no escape while we're still conscience & breathing. I just read a story of a note that Albert Einstein gave to a courier in Tokyo briefly describing his theory on happy living. It sold for 1.6 million dollars at auction. Although the pre-auction estimate was for between $5,000 and $8,000. The note said in German, “a quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest”. A second note saying “where there’s a will, there’s a way” sold for only $240,000. In just the last week sometime I heard a story of a scientist who studied Einstein's brain, & compared it with others. He found marked differences in one area, although it's unsure exactly what that means. But he hypothesized it allowed him to think in a very different way than at least some other people. So in at least some ways, we are slaves to our own biology. So many people want to see the world as black & white, right & wrong. A kind of binary world view. But no mater what I look at, or how I parse it, all I see is shades of grey. It's like the line from Hamlet where he tells Rosencrantz that Denmark was a prison in his eyes. Rosencrantz reply is, "We think not so, my lord." Hamlets answer was, "Why, then, ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison." This is why some will cling to a lie despite absolute proof of the falsehood. If we believe a thing, it is true in our minds. Religion is the best example of that, although I hate to use it as such. People around the world believe in a plethora of different deities & origin myths. No mater how you pick that apart, they can't all be true. That doesn't mean any of them are true. These are not provable ideas. But people will die believing theirs is, & all the rest are false.
In ancient times, some believe all the god were real. If you conquered a neighboring people. You conquered their god too, so you'd add them to your stable of gods on your side. In ancient Rome, no one cared who or what you worshiped, as long as you made sacrifices to the gods of the state. Some vacillated from one faith to another like different fashions statements. Today, for some, everything is about religion. If you're on their team, you're righteous. If you're on another team, you are evil. It's a shame, because all faiths have good things to teach us. But there will always be those who seek to use faith as a cudgel, to waylay their perceived opponents. It's sad the world has too may wall builders, & not enough bridge builders. Thomas Paine said,
“I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.” Also, "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” That's why we have the separation of church & state, although some are not as vigilant at following that idea. We are a world of rubes. Sheep to be fleeced by those in power, & those who aspire to power. It's a wonder we haven't destroyed ourselves yet. My prison is I can't unknow or unsee, & I can't ignore or turn a blind eye, & I'm powerless to make it stop. At times, it's as if the inmates have taken over the asylum. I try to distract myself, but like a train wreck, you can't help but look. We are voyeurs to our neighbors woes. We are all monsters & saints on a sliding scale. There are evil men who do good things, & paragons of virtue who are rotten at their core. There are devils & angels within us all. Any more, all I can do is shake my head in silence. All I can tell anyone, is go forth & do good. No qualifier. No exceptions. Just do good. Think about the other guy first, & get over this me first idea. No one survives alone. No man is an island. No one is a world unto themselves. No one is above or bellow me. We are all a part of the web of mankind. There is no one wise enough to judge who belongs & who doesn't.
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Post by nana on Sept 10, 2020 16:48:04 GMT -5
I have had that Shakespeare quote taped to my bathroom wall by the night light for years. Also, I put a needlepoint “Today is a good day” tacked up where we can see it every morning first thing when we come down the stairs. I feel your pain, Pooka!
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