Perks of Being on 1stDibs

We were hesitant about taking the plunge two years ago and going BIG  TIME with a site on 1stDibs.  Could we afford the charges?  Would we do OK?  All sorts off questions came to mine.  All our insecurities raised their ugly heads and made us doubt.  But then the only way one gets something done is to go ahead and try.

We had been on another national site.  We had made expenses and even done well.  We had sold to designers such as Kelly Wearstler and Micheal Smith, when he was working on the White House, also to Oparah's designer, Nate Berkus.   So why not try a bigger and better site.

December two years ago we took the plunge and signed up for and started listing on 1stDibs.  From the very first we began to do well selling well.  This was not without it's perils.   Shipping has been a real learning curve.  What to use more importantly what not to use. All and all 1stDibs has been great.  The really fun part comes when you sell things to designers and clients all round the world.  For a moment you can connect to important people and for a while we can live vicariously .  Producers, Famous Designers, and even a Princess are among our clients.  Who knows who will want what, but because of our site we are able sell world wide, even in a small town off the Chesapeake Bay. 

Ode to Catie

Catie Lake and Brian

Catie first visited us in the shop with her family.  I noticed that she was a pretty girl, whose walk was a little off.  I thought maybe that she had a birth defect.  Then Lewis dated her sister, and we got to know the family.  It was then that we heard Catie's story.  This was not a birth defect or something she could work through, but a devastating debilitating disease.  We watched as she declined.  We witnessed her marvelous attitude.  She always smiled.  She was in love, and in love with life.  She had found her soul mate and the love of her life Brian, who had himself over come odds.  Even though she continue to worsen her smile was always quick to come.  Catie died recently.  We are all sadden by her passing. Please visit the Mindlink site.  

http://www.mindlinkfoundation.org/caties-story

If it moves you please donate to help others like Catie.  Your donations will also help with research for a cure  for Parkinsons Disease.

Fall is in the air...time to think about Decorating

A mixture of style makes for an interesting home

Fred Comer, of Comer & Co, was just visiting in the shop and we began discussing the difference in people's decorating habits, according to where they live.  Living in Virginia we have noticed that in certain areas there is a reluctance to change. In the more metropolitan areas the taste becomes more diverse.  Where people have come together from different ethic back grounds, there seems to develop an openest to experimenting with both colors and design.  Rules are broken and expanded.  Life becomes more and more exciting.

French Early Modernist Chairs 1940's

I've never been one much for following rules when it came to decorating.  To begin with I was forced to decorate with whatever we could afford.  There was a lot of, " would you like this," "Why yes thank you."  Things from the attic or hand me downs from relatives.  Most early married people start out that way.

Italian Deco Dresser 1940's

Today, however a lot of young people marry later, and have more money with which to work .  Some couples both work.  They have developed their taste. They can afford to be picky.  The period that seems to be the most popular is the Deco and Early Modernist.  The designs of this era are easy to mix with other periods.  The best looking interiors are those that are eclectic, drawing from all sorts of diverse sources.

1950's Modernist "wheat shaft tables"

The Deco and Early Modernist Furniture were made with a cleanest of design and with uncompromising quality that compares with find pieces of an earlier time.

Painting 1960's by Charles Sibley

My best advise is to buy one good piece at a time.  Good design never goes out of style.  Get the best that you can an build up slowly.  The good American, Italian and French designs from the 1930's and 1940's will continue to build in value.  They are good investments now for the future.

1940's green Murano lamps

All of the pieces that we have shown above can be used together in a room.