Favorite Finds: Maddie's Chairs

Well, well, well... what do we have here? A Favorite Finds post?? Anyone remember those?? :)

Favorite Finds fizzled (how do you like that alliteration?) because it was really hard to find a new contributor each week. I nagged my friends, I wrote bloggers who never replied, and I scoured Pinterest for people to contact. After almost a year, I gave up and decided to move on. BUT, it might not be over. Please, if you have any interest in participating, email me. It's painless, I promise.

Now, on to Maddie's Favorite Find! I discovered Maddie through my good friend Carly who lives in Denver. Maddie runs Thriftary, a fun blog full of thrifty and design-y goodness. She just moved into a new house that she will be unveiling soon and I can't wait to see what she's done with the place! We know one thing that will be making an appearance - her chairs! She tells us all about them below.




What is your favorite find and where did you find it?
My favorite find is a set of chairs that I was forced to take from a seller on Craigslist. How does that happen, you ask? Well I was looking for a free couch in my college days, and the family I finally decided to pick-up from told me that I HAD to take these 4 chairs if I wanted the couch for free. They got me! I hated the chairs at the time.. Little did I know I would be writing about them 5 years later haha.

What is your relationship with Craigslist - are you an avid C-lister or casual browser?
Ummmm... YES. I'll take AVID for 1000. I am literally on Craigslist every day. I have a process. I start in the "free" section like a true self-proclaimed Cheapskate. I use search words like "Charming" or "refurbish" or "character" to see what I can find (a good score would be old doors, cool lamps, reclaimed wood). Then, I move onto furniture. I use a lot of the same search terms, but most days I will set my price limit at $150. Then, if I'm feeling saucy, I move onto antiques. Some days, I will even up my price maximum to like $300 if I'm feeling like a dare devil. Yea. I know. I'm fierce.

Did you have to do any repair/restoration? How have you put your own personal touch on them?
Absolutely. The best part about these chairs is that I have re-painted and re-upholstered them 3 TIMES. Yup. I captured one of the makeovers on the blog. You can check it out here. You can even kind of see the nasty probably disease infested seat cover underneath that was the ORIGINAL. Don't worry. I disinfect them every time they get a makeover :)

Any other details we should know?
I feel like I can be super funky and risky with them because, after all, they were free! Every year and a half or so I change the fabric on the seats, and re-paint the rest. It's really a tradition now, I suppose.

Why do you love buying vintage/secondhand?
I LOVE the feeling I get when I can bring new life to something old. Sometimes I wish I was more of a tree hugger, or like a vegetarian or something cool... but on most days i'm not. Thrifting and recycling, though, is one way that I really feel capable of contributing to a lesser carbon footprint. And the satisfaction of buying something new for your home or your body, is NOWHERE NEAR as thrilling as when you make it.

I agree, Maddie! Thank you so much for contributing to Favorite Finds!

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