There's a funky little second hand furniture shop that we drive past on the way home from school, full of great retro stuff. I'm not actually in the market for any furniture (except a comfortable new couch, ie one that we can actually sit on for any length of time, and for that we need Ikea) but a few weeks ago a dining setting caught my eye. No prizes for guessing why: it was purple of course. As we flashed by in the car I thought
ooh, purple chairs!! but I kept driving. The next day they were still there and seeing as purple chairs are a rarity I decided to check them out. Six purple swivel chairs, lushly padded with a round laminate table, $180 the lot. But being an idiot I told the guy I'd check with the other half, I didn't want them to be an impulse buy. Fixit, bless his heart, heard my spiel (about how my Grandmother's gold chairs, whilst lovely, were like planks of wood to sit on and I could keep them to use for if and when I ever get my own tap studio and how a round table might go really nicely in the family room and how the chairs, after all, were PURPLE) and agreed we
ought to get them. He and my Dad went there the next morning to get them. And they were gone.
Of course I should have put $20 on them at the time, but I'm a retro furniture novice. So I tried to tell myself It Was A Want Not A Need, but deep down I was very disappointed and I truly believed I would never see another set of purple chairs ever.
Until last week!!
Complete with a larger than the old one laminate table, for only $200 the set.
The gods were watching and the first set was just a test to see if YOU were watching. This lot is the reward because you were :-)
ReplyDeleteAs a purple girl from way back I appreciate your purchase. It is a sickness, but a good sickness.
ReplyDeleteBTW did your parents ever let you paint your room purple? Best mine got to was a pale lilac when what I really wanted was deep purple.
We had bare brick walls, growing up. But I painted a room in our last house a periwinkle blue which sounds bad but was fantastically tranquil to live in.
ReplyDeleteI think you need to live in a purple weatherboard house. Go on... I dare you!
ReplyDeleteI would if I could find one.
ReplyDeleteDon't know where you can possibly have got this purple obsession from. You may perhaps need to inherit all the purple lengths of fabric (some very nice silks) which moulder in the cupboards, protected (I hope) from the moths and silverfish). Not to mention the purple yarns. and do you like amethysts?
ReplyDeleteWhere did you find the purple furniture Mark 2?
Sorry to come over as anon but can't remember PW!
Stompermama
Same place! And I was not the only person eyeing off BOTH sets of purple chairs. The other poor lass missed out TWICE! But I learned my lesson about getting in quick with the VISA card the after I missed the first lot.
ReplyDeleteOooh, pretty! I'm a sucker for that style of retro furniture.
ReplyDeleteHooray for purple retro you! May the dining room set give you much pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI live in a fifties-vintage house. There's a lovely whimsy about retro furnishings, especially ones in funky colors.
Stomper - we have purple weatherboard houses up here in the mountains!
ReplyDeleteI am going to photograph them for you.
And the lilac roses with that great setting are genius!
What are the odds on two sets of purple in the same place so close together ? It was meant to be.
ReplyDeletePositively perfect!
ReplyDeleteIt was fate. Destiny. These chairs were meant for you! I love them. And they have not only fantastic form, but look fantastically functional as well!
ReplyDeleteWot Jodie said, what are the odds?!
ReplyDeleteI have a lime green setting (luckily I love green) and the chairs are so comfortable but you wouldn't know to look at them.
I know that feeling of going back and something I wanted was gone (red laminex...).
I'm not -really- a purple girl myself, (I appreciate it from afar) but it's OK because I know how you feel about brown, I do really, really like periwinkle blue though...
ReplyDeleteThose chairs look very, very comfortable, you might need to move one into the lounge room.
You know Mr Soup is a painter, right? He painted a house in a street in Kensington purple. It looked FABULOUS, and the owners are artists so they were into being brave with their colours.
ReplyDeleteI'll give you the address offline if you like so you can go have a look.
And the younger boys' bedroom at our Flemington house was periwinkle blue with white trim. I miss it.
I love purple too!
ReplyDeleteMy house is terracotta pink, with a purple and green porch/verandah. I painted it all by hand as a millenium project. You can tell a belly dancer lives here!
The front door is set into a wall about 2 sq m of Cadbury purple.
The old boy had an absolute fit! He wouldn't speak to me for two weeks, but I told him it was $15 worth of paint, and any time he wanted to make the effort to change it he could.....and its still purple!
They are, without a doubt, purple.
ReplyDeleteNicely acquired!
Lucky you got the second set of chairs. If it had been the swivel chairs you would have got tired of hearing yourselves say "Stop swinging on your chair"
ReplyDeleteWow! Looking good there with those flowers.
ReplyDeleteYou were meant to have that set.
Oh those look like you!
ReplyDeleteI'm envious of any set. We make do with a dining set as we have no kitchen space to speak of. The chairs are so disgusting they're a positive health hazard!
ReplyDeleteIn years to come, probably a decade I shall have great pleasure searching for replacements, although I think I probably favour pillar box red rather than purple.
Cheers
Weirdo.
ReplyDeleteSo are you into Prince, oh Purple One ?
I too can direct you to several purple weatherboards .. I passed a new one the other day ( although they are more a Wisteria purple rather than Cadburys )
Congratulations! Glad it all worked out in the end. And really, what are the chances at TWO sets of purple chairs!
ReplyDeleteBut there goes the circle argument.
ReplyDeleteHave you forgotten your own arguments so quickly? "...how a round table might go really nicely in the family room..." and yet the one you ended up with I'm pretty sure, had four sides.
ReplyDeleteheh
I AM actually a great one for forgetting my own arguments! Thank you for explaining! Round would have been nice though. (But big is good too)
ReplyDeleteohhh they were cheap too !!what a fabbo buy - nice one :) le
ReplyDeleteIt pays to be in the right place at the right time :)
ReplyDeletePurple is the color for royalty. So, yeah - of COURSE you like it.
ReplyDeleteHope you love it a long time.
That was definitely kismet. I mean seriously, what WERE the odds?
ReplyDeleteGood score!
Oh I hate when that happens. I had the same things happen with a dollshouse, but it worked out wonderfully! Those chairs are fantastic. I didn't realize you were a purple fiend :-)
ReplyDeleteThose are FABULOUS purple chairs. My friend Jeri AKA "imbeingheldhostage" from the blog "In the Gutter" sent me the link to your blog and said we should be friends. Because I'm obsessed with purple. (you can visit my blog and take a peek at the picture of my purple house)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.journeytofamily.com
Oh my god - My parents had that same table and chairs! Only their chairs were/are cream coloured - these look so fantastic and in such good condition! Lucky You!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I bought a house this time last year, the paint colours I love. There are two purple feature walls, two purple ceilings and a purple chimney. We haven't moved in yet, but maybe soon, we had some work to do first.
ReplyDelete