Saturday, December 5, 2009

Save the Pink...Lamps?



Yesterday afternoon, when I got back to town after work, I was driving across our town square when I passed by a new junk shop.  It has been open for around two weeks now, and I finally had an opportunity to stop in.  I feel justified in calling this a junk shop, as there was no real organization to the store, things were displayed on old card tables and in boxes lining the floor everywhere.  I'd call it a step below a thrift shop.  I like to go in these junk shops because you never know what you are going to find.  Sometimes it's a treasure, sometimes it's nothing.  So, as I'm walking up to the store, I glance in the window and see a fiberglass lamp shade, and think to myself...jackpot.  I walk in, go up to the window, and there are two pink ceramic lamps with great fiberglass shades.  I look for the price tag...$5.99 per lamp..hmm...don't usually spend $6 on a vintage lamp, but oh, what a find.  A matching set!  I grabbed them before one of the other people in the little store decided that a vintage pink and gold lamp might look good in their house (there were two other shoppers there at the same time as me).

I shopped around a little more and found a couple of other treasures, paid for my finds ($14.95 for everything), loaded up the car and went home.  When I got home I discovered that one of the lamps had been broken at some point and repaired, but the repair was done very well, and if it hadn't been for a chip missing in the base, I probably wouldn't have found it.  It doesn't hurt that the gold flecked design on the fluted conical base is great for hiding the repair.  Even the fiberglass shades are amazing!  The only thing that could make them better is if they were tiered shades.

The lamps were quite dirty, and I would say that they had been in storage for a while.  The plugs on both of them are broken, and will need to be replaced.  I have done this before and it's quite simple, just need to make a trip to the discount store to get the parts.  What to do with them???  I seem to be developing a lamp collecting syndrome...I have way too many for a 2 bedroom house!  I'm sure that I'll find a use for them.  I think that they would look great with my Heywood Wakefield bedroom set, but it's set up at Mom and Dad's, and they don't get the whole retro thing (but strangely they do like the bedroom set - go figure).  They would think that these lamps are hideous.  Oh well.

I did a little searching around on the big auction site (see the post below) and found that the pink and gold color combination must have been very popular.  So, as Pam did with Save the Pink Bathrooms,  I think I might want to start a movement to encourage everyone to Save the Pink Lamps!

Other finds at the junk shop - a box full of green Shiny Brite Christmas ornaments, a vintage coffee cup, and a VHS copy of Fahrenheit 451.

I'm off to be on the teacher float in the Christmas parade today in the town where I teach.  Hope you have a warmer Saturday than I'm going to have!

4 comments:

  1. Gorgeous! And you can't beat the price. I recently found a junk shop,too. Their idea of merchandising is basicaly just boxes & boxes full of insanely low priced treasures. It's like walking into a dusty old garage & sifting through someone's belongings. I LOVE it!
    Happy weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah, now I can't feel quite as smug about my deer lamp find . . . I would kill someone for those lamps and the pink color is sooooo perfect. Lucky you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My Gosh! They are beautiful!!!! I too have a BAD case of "lamp collecting syndrome" haha but that never seems to stop me! Last year at my favorite Place in Kansas I found a cool wood baased lamp with out a shade, and bought it for $3.98 TURNS OUT Its an Eames Lamp!!!! and I snagged the matching Shade Across town for $20!

    ReplyDelete

All comments on posts older than 7 days will go into moderation until I can approve them. Thank you for your patience and understanding! Comments are not to be used to advertise your business or personal Craigslist advertisements. These will be DELETED. Thanks.