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I kind of have a thing for certain chairs. There are styles and colors I gravitate towards, but always I require that they blend well into my favorite cottage look.

Here is one I acquired this year from the estate of one of the residents at the senior community where I work – she was one of my favorite people there. In her honor I’ve named this lovely Frenchy side chair Marlene… because that’s easier and shorter than always saying, “…that chair I got from Marlene’s estate.”

Here is another chair I adore:

This chair was painted in this color scheme on purpose by my Great-Aunt Hazel. I’m not sure exactly when she painted it, but I remember it being in her “utility room” when I was growing up, so let’s call it 1970’s – but it certainly could have been before that. Anyway, it’s a great old chair, still sturdy and very lively. I’m actually not that crazy over the multi-colored palette, but this is my aunt’s chair so it’s staying this way.

I found another one very similar recently at a flea market, and although I again didn’t like the color, I thought I might paint it because I just love this style and knew I was planning to keep it.

Did I mention I did not like the color? I was indeed thinking about painting it, but one day I was sitting at my kitchen table in my usual spot and I happened to glance over at it:

It looked pretty cute, sitting there just barely peeking over the tabletop. A bit later, I had gone outside with my pink long-sleeve corduroy shirt as a jacket, and when I came in I placed it over the chair, and then a bit later still I looked again and saw this:

And at that moment I thought, well now that color isn’t so bad next to the pink. So I pulled the chair away from the table and did just a teensy bit of styling.

And the more I played with this, the more I began to really like that taupey color and all its imperfections.

So by the time I was done “styling,” the little chair had completely won me over, odd taupe color and all.

Together, the chairs make me think of the Dashwood sisters in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. One seems a bit bland at first, but dependable and steady… and the other is flighty, a bit over-dramatic, attention-seeking. So I guess that means they are to be called Elinor and Marianne.

I suppose I am the only one who names her chairs…?

One of the things I’ve learned through buying and selling furniture via the online marketplace apps is that if you are patient, a good deal will come along on whatever you are looking for. Although Greg and I are mostly out of the furniture trade now, I had been wanting to replace my tall/narrow glass curio cabinet (one of Greg’s curb-finds, which served me well for two years!) with the wider curved-glass style. The truly antique ones can be soooo expensive.

I was walking through The Picker Knows (local antique mall where we used to have our furniture booth) one day a couple weekends ago and spotted these two little cuties, all painted storybook-perfect… just $25 each, and I thought about buying them, but left the store without.

And glad I did NOT spend my money, because the next morning I got a Facebook message from Greg – he had found a curved-glass curio, and by some stroke of luck I was the first person to inquire. We went immediately to pick it up… it is probably only about 25 years old but it is solid wood, not the cheap fake stuff they use these days. It shows some wear but I absolutely love it. It is very hard to photograph though – here it is with the door open.

If definitely holds more than the old one, and it gave me an opportunity to give my “glass grizzly” – a gift from my Dad when I was nine years old – pride of place at top-shelf-center. (The bear is actually bone china – he has followed me to every place I’ve ever lived, including two colleges, and he has survived two whole-house-destroyed floods. He is a treasure for sure!)

I am still debating whether to paint the new cabinet, but now that would be a major project because I’ve already filled it up with treasures!