A Wealth of Finds for Home : Auctions, Estate Sales Are Places to Hunt for Vintage, Heirloom Treasures, Pair Says
Before you decide that you must spend large chunks of your life savings on furnishings, have a look at how John Davies and Skip Loverin have responded to the perennial challenge.
Their seven-room home is unrepentant in its eclectic decor. They incorporate vintage and heirloom objects, Deco lamps, Amish quilts, Waterford crystal and Hopalong Cassidy lunch boxes with a graceful style that could slip inside Architectural Digest.
“A lot of people see our house and think all of this must have cost a bundle,” says Loverin. “But what they don’t know is that we have pieces in here that literally cost pennies.”
He points to a vintage Maplewood Singer sewing machine. The cost: $5. Close by is a 1939 davenport for $195. The “slipper” chair (women used them for lacing up their boots) with horse-hair stuffing cost $10 and the huge, cubed wooden end table was $25. A pair of Art Deco chairs for the living room were $60 and a large burl-wood sideboard cost $65.
Loverin and Davies say that File’s Auctioneering in Santa Ana is a good source for furniture and accessories.
“They have an auction once a month,” explains Loverin, “and the strategy is to stay late. People generally want to go home, and then they’ll take just about anything you offer to get rid of it. We’ve bought old linens, china, glassware sometimes for literally just dollars. It always seems to have a pile of wonderful--and inexpensive--stuff.” They bought a set of Haviland china in the rare Indian pattern for $120.
They say the Orange County Swap Meet, Orange Coast College swap meet and the Rose Bowl Antique Show in Pasadena on the 2nd Sunday of each month are also filled with treasures.
“The key to having something look right in your house is that you first actually like it,” Loverin says. “Sometimes that doesn’t work, but only rarely.”
They also rummage through estate sales for premiere purchases. “Sometimes older people who inherit furniture and knickknacks are just happy to get rid of them,” says Davies. “If they know that they’ll have a ‘good home,’ so to speak, that’s all they really care about.
“My grandmother had these quilts that were bought for $2 each,” Davies says. “She was literally washing the car with them. She asked my mom in horror, ‘Why would anyone want to buy these old quilts when you can go to Penney’s and buy a beautiful new one?’ Many people don’t see the value of these things right away.”
There are many beautiful lamp fixtures throughout the house, such as the two drop-lamps inside each owner’s bedroom (they were purchased for $80 from a man who buys old hotel fixtures all over the country).
When they bought a stamped-original Art Deco globe-lamp, it “seemed like a lot of money at the time,” says Davies. “Twenty dollars for a lamp, my God, that could buy brunch! But we decided, why not?” He says people have offered them $1,000 for it and he’s seen them sold on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood for $1,500 to $2,500.
Davis says that the entry table near the front door was once “the top of a bedroom dresser that was shot. It cost about $5.” A Jean Harlow Deco lamp ($8) lights the bathroom and a Waterford crystal vase full of apples sits on the huge, vintage ‘20s radio ($55) that still works.
The house was part of a recent tour sponsored by the Santa Ana Historical Society. Of special interest for that tour was the low-budget kitchen remodeling. Sleek granite was used instead of tile to avoid grouting and new whitewashed, wood cabinets replaced the old ones. The original ‘40s General Electric stove was left in place. It “will probably work until we die,” Loverin says.
In the laundry room adjoining the kitchen, there’s a smattering of ‘50s nostalgia. Decorating the walls are original Coca-Cola serving trays (“I got these for $5 in Oklahoma and now they can go for anywhere from $50 to $400,” Davies says) and huge blowup prints of Davies’ family and Life magazine covers. The back porch “milk door” is filled with an old-fashioned glass milk bottle. “It’s funny how something as normal as a milk bottle can bring you back to safe, childhood feelings,” Loverin says.
The bathroom’s remodeling cost was kept to a minimum by retaining the original shower tiles (just the outer-ridges were replaced with blue tiles) and the original, white pedestal sink was re-plumbed.
All of the sumptuous fabrics used to reupholster the furniture were purchased at Calico Corners in Orange. “They call them ‘blemished’ fabrics,” explains Davies. “But what that means is that there was a run at the end of 1,000 yards of fabric or something as invisible.” The Deco carved wood chairs in Loverin’s bedroom cost about $100 to reupholster and the living room davenport $500.
“It’s not that you’re looking for cheap furniture at all,” explains Davies. “Because if that’s what you were doing, it would probably look awful. But it’s always nice when you get the big, great ‘finds.’ ”