When In Rome, Go Thrifting?

Our family has escaped to the beach for a week and yesterday my mom and I had ourselves a thrifting adventure while the men-folk had their afternoon naps. I admit thrifting is not the first thing most people think of when they hear "beach trip" but when I get the urge to thrift, it must be satisfied. I grabbed a few gems, which you'll get to see in a later post, but today you get to see the lovely items I had to leave behind. *sniffle*

One of our stops was Deja Vu which had some quirky little knick knacks, but was mostly nice antique (i.e. out of my price range) furniture. Before I even walked in the door I spotted this chair and promptly fell in love.

Between the wicker body and the curvy tube legs I fell hard for this guy. The seat cushion was a little grungy but that's to be expected for old furniture. At $90 it wasn't exactly a steal, but doable for a vintage chair with character and in good condition. But, it failed my (husband's) major shopping test: where will we put it and do we actually need it? No on both counts - curse you tiny house with adequate seating! - but it didn't make it any easier to walk away from.

Just inside the door I found yet another chair that I was pretty sure I needed.

It doesn't immediately seem to match my style but it was just so sculptural and striking. Plus the stripes were way cute. It was even more impractical bigger than the first chair AND more expensive, costing an imposing $175, so yeah, it didn't make the cut either.

Buried in the middle of the showroom (thus the wonky photo angle) was the granddaddy of all mid-century furniture. I call it the granddaddy because it's freakin' huge! It's as tall as me and about 12 feet long. Yowza!

It was deliciously leggy and it would hold so much stuff! I really, really, REALLY wanted to justify buying it for our master bedroom (which is technically finished in terms of furniture) but A) it would dwarf the room and the other furniture, 2) there is no way we could get that home with a van full of beach-going cargo, and D) it was $650. Again, not outrageously expensive for what you're getting but still more than I happened to have in the change jar at the moment. Drat. The last treasure I left without buying (or photographing) was a set of mounted bull horns. Why do I want them? I'm not exactly sure. But I just might stop by the store again on my way out of town to make them mine.

After failing horribly at my 'No Chair Left Behind' program, we moved on to Seahorse Antiques. This was one of my favorite types of thrift stores - one big space with smaller booths stocked by individual vendors/consignors. I like this set up because the various sellers guarantee an assortment of items in term of style, price, age, etc. Once again I was struck with chair envy when I stepped through the door.

Maybe it's because a certain super-blogger was just on the hunt for an egg chair, but I was immediately smitten by this chair. What can I say? I'm easily influenced. As fun as this blue vintage chair is, it is the mayor of "I-have-no-room-for-this-ville" so it stayed put.

Like I said, I ended up bringing a few goodies home with me, but you won't get to see them until they're in their new habitat.

Do you like to go thrifting on vacation?