Gearing up for fall season

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I have been buying! Lots of new items are hitting my shops getting ready for fall! I recently had an opportunity to purchase some fine art and decor items and have been adding some to my retail spaces. Please stop out weekly for lots of new finds if you are local!

Hot tip- my Chairish shop will be 15% off for 2 days only, 9/5-9/7. I welcome you-especially if you require shipping on a large item, to shop with me here. Shipping is quoted for you before you buy! Need help, please reach out!

Have a look at some new items that have gone or will go live soon! Temporary seating, 2 sets available just in time for holiday guests and the funkiest folding sets ever!

Summer may be winding down, but garden, patio and sunrooms are still hot! Just in, 2 amazing patio chair sets! One I have lovingly rebuilt the seats and covered in the most beautiful Clarence House Textiles indoor/outdoor print! The chairs could be repainted or powder coated in the color of your choice and I made sure you had many colors to choose from in this work of art!

Sold my awesome restored couch and brought in another beauty! It’s clean and comfy! All my upholstered goods are sanitized and cleaned prior to delivery! THIS COUCH IS SOLD!! 💚💙

Need a great display hutch with lots of storage? I just picked up this beauty! She’s an upgraded version with glass on the sides of the hutch (not common) and 2 light fixtures on the top PLUS glass shelves! Most of these have wood shelves. The curve front low credenza is sexy too. Perfect to highlight any collection!!!!

I am stocked on dining tables, side tables, accent chairs and more! So many high end pieces you’ll be proud to collect and show off in your home. I take pride in keeping my prices reasonable and I dare you to compare! This China hutch is priced half of what some of my competitors are asking and they have the common version. I try to pay fair prices to the estates and homeowners I buy from AND keep my prices to you as low as I can because I am good at what I do. Thanks for your support as I wrap up this year, my best year yet in 8 years of selling and I seriously am so excited about my current inventory. I worked hard to build it up until this point by reinvesting my profits back into inventory and growing! It’s hard to start a business with no money out of pocket. I am not paying myself for my hard work. At some point, I hope to and I am definitely on my way.

Halloween is out at my retail spaces! Stop by and see all the new items I have been adding. Open 10-6 WED-SUN. DOWNSTAIRS:

UPSTAIRS:

XO MALISSA.

Do you Voodoo? Down the rabbit hole of WTF is this?

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I rarely source inventory from thrift stores these days. I am busy buying directly from families and helping them in their home clean out or estate liquidation process. So imagine my surprise when I popped in a NJ thrift I was passing and my kid was happy to walk through and I actually found something GOOD. Never expecting much, I was taken aback by a large collection of YOODOO VOODOO dolls. Peeking through the cello I noticed that these dolls were anatomically correct AND were made with nylon stocking like material like a cabbage patch. But what had my attention…..arm pit hair on the lady doll? What is this? The box in and of itself is a masterpiece. ‘Stick it to them with Yoodoovoodoo!’ And ‘The voodoo-it-yourself kit for people who love to hate’, ‘a product of revenge’. The box is sarcastic comedy gold. I had to have them all.

I am down the rabbit hole of research to try to uncover who made these dolls and why! On first glance, I tried to process what era they came from. No barcodes, no websites. That’s a good sign that they are older. There is a ‘reorder’ card on each with a P.O. Box to mail order more dolls. Another sign it was pre-dot com era. Next I hit the web. I found evidence of one or two known dolls via pics. Then I found the some copyright records from the late 80s/early 90s. The next interesting thing to note is an original advertisement for the doll! It came from an 80s/90s magazine called SPY. It was a satirical journaling of NYC area celebrities and upper class folk. Looking like a fun time, I just ordered a book published later that gives a history of the rag mag and may or may not add some additional insight into the doll. There is definitely a story here as this box is all telling. It even calls out ‘brother Gene’ who sounds like the first voodoo victim.

Each doll comes with 2 pins that you pierce the doll with to inflict pain/your curse/whatever on your victim. This whole gag is like someone’s private joke gone public. It’s genius and whomever took it to this level had the funds to back it up. I am currently in possession of 22 dolls, only 5 males and the rest are female. Here’s a look at this highly detailed beauties.

I also have to note that there are no legal disclaimers on this at al! Like it’s a doll with no keep away from children (considering there are removable pins and glued on hair accents). Also nothing noted that it is a gag gift, which it obviously is. I do believe I linked an ad to another magazine called Chic. It was a Larry Flynt production and upscale porn type magazine. So that confirms the genre it was being sold to, Here’s a look! If you are familiar with them or their story please drop me a line!

XO MALISSA

Just finished the James Mont/Chairmasters chair up! I gave her a colorful ikat seat perfect for boho, transitional and eclectic spaces! Listing is live in my Etsy shop,

Hot Home Summer!

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I hope everyone is having a great summer and your style hot but your home cool! I am working through my projects and adding things to my shops. Stop me if you spy something you need! That said, now is the time to think about fall entertaining. It has been averaging 2 months to ship furniture so make sure you plan accordingly for those gatherings coming up so you can receive your items in time. Chairish is still the best price for hiring a shipper so please check out my listings there to get your instant shipping price. If it works for you, check out and we’ll do the rest!

FYI, I will be heading out for a much needed vacay! Exciting I know. I may put my shops on vacation mode early in the week. I do not expect many delays on furniture as it takes a bit to coordinate the pick up but any smalls will be delayed. This month has been crazy! Thanks for all the love and I’ll leave you with my latest preview. Just picked up this dining room from Young Manufacturing and will have the China hutch all picked up later this week I hope.

Best pic I have of the complete China hutch. I have the base (pic below) but need to pic the top up, which, does not fit in my van and I will not deliver in the Vanagon so this piece is pick up or hire a shipper only.

Base has 2 cabinets, 1 on each side. Center section is 2 drawers. The base is also low and sexy. The top is quite tall and wide. I believe there are lights in the top as I saw the cords. Also there is at least a few glass shelves but I suspect there are wood as well. More info as soon as I collect it!

I just picked up a large stash of some fascinating novelty dolls from the late 80’s. I am in a rabbit hole of research but putting some pieces together so stay tuned for my next update! They are totally wild and obscure! XO MALISSA

Adventures in cane replacement, July 4th sale on Chairish

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First things first! My Chairish shop is currently on sale 15% off starting today and ending July 4th! Head over and try the Chairish app’s view in your space mode AND instant shipping quotes! I have said it before and I’ll say it again: the gas crunch is affecting shippers nationwide and getting a direct quote is reflecting this increase in costs. Chairish is still offering very reasonable rates. If you need shipping, I highly recommend you purchase through my Chairish shop! Click the black box below to head there!

THE SHOW MUST GO ON: WORKING WITH SHEET CANE

I was presented with an opportunity to perform in a local theater production’s pit orchestra of The Secret Garden musical. I saw this show on Broadway in the 90s and was smitten with the dreamlike music and fantastic melodies. Even though rehearsals are about an hour away, I decided this will be fun and jumped in. The fun part about not being an actor is that we orchestra folk show up at the end. The actors have been rehearsing for months and we roll in 2 weeks before the show and it’s go time. It’s intense with 3 hour rehearsals most nights of the week until show time. Tonight we are practicing with the actors on their stage for the first time and next week is tech week where they attempt to put it all together with final run throughs before opening night on Friday! Anyway, in this show, one of the children is in a wheel chair for most of the performance. They found a real nice antique chair but, like most of them, this one had a blown out cane seat and a larger hole in the back. A friend who is in the show, asked if I could handle replacing it. After a quick glance I realized it was pressed or sheet cane and agreed to do it. I arrived to pick the chair up on a lovely sprawling farm just outside of a small town. The stage was built adjacent to a small stream and barn. What a gorgeous location to host this event! The audience will be bringing their own chairs the night of the show, refreshments and beer sold at concessions too! It has all the makings of a fun family night outdoors at the theatre! (Pronounced thee-A-tor, of course!). We loaded the ample chair into my car and away I went. Hoping to channel my inner cane goddess once again. It had been a while and I had a few other projects on hand so off to the local cane supply shop I went!

The young acTor playing the role of ‘Colin’ is about 75 lbs soaking wet but she agreed that she would be happy not having Her butt fall through thE seat!

I gathered my 2 other projects and headed out to Kempton across the county, where we are very fortunate to have a basket weaving and cane supply shop called the Country Seat. Dealing with the local shop I am able to show up with my items and have them cut my cane and spline to size (I still have work to do but I am not overbuying what I need). Plus she shares tips if there is something hard going on with the piece. So much nicer to support a small local shop than Amazon! I purchased what I needed to do the 3 jobs and home I went. I got started immediately as my main concern was getting the chair done for the show ASAP.

REMOVING THE OLD CANE

The first thing that happens is you need to get the old spline and underlying glue loose so you can remove the old seat/back. I purchased a Bissell Steam Shot for this and use it without the attachments. The older the chair is, the easier this process is. Old glue degrades and makes this job easier. My 70s/80s Cesca chair is giving me a hard time so it has been pushed to last. Apply steam to the spline until it loosens up and gently remove. I did buy a nice $18 tool that is helping with this task. It’s an awl with a bent end that just fits in the trough and you can use to pry up the old spline. Worth it!

This chair (chairmasters on tag but possibly thoneT design made famous by designer james mont) in process of Tear down.

PREPPING TO REPLACE THE CANE

After everything is removed, I made sure the channel was free of old glue and debris. The next step is to trim up your sheet (just a little as you always want to give yourself plenty of extra but tighten it up a little so that it is easier to work with). Then you soak the sheet for 15-20 min so it won’t break when you are working with it. I also keep a spray bottle handy so I can freshen that up as I am working.

It’s time to insert the cane! In this step you gently place the cane where you want it and tap the wedges to push the cane into the channel. This takes finesse taking care not to force the sheet which can break the delicate reed. You can still make adjustments and if you don’t like something, you can remove, massage out the creases and give it another go. Once you have it where you want it, you use the wedges to work the cane to the bottom of the channel. I tapped with a small hammer.

Now you are ready for the spline! That will also need to soak for about 20 min. Once it’s out, you can dry fit and trim it closer to what you need so it’s ready to place. Then when you are ready, you will drop elmer’s wood glue into the trough. It will settle to the bottom in about a minute. Then you can put the online in the channel and tap it way down in with a hammer. That will all dry up nice and tight! It’s pretty time consuming but not like hand caning which is exponentially more laborious. Here’s a look at the 2 projects I have done, the cesca chair is still in step 1! Ha.

This chair was much harder duE to the curved back. I also used radio weave cane, WhiCh is a different weave than the standard.

Wanna see the show??? It’s in Robesonia, PA. Link to info and tickets below! Show dates are JULY 7, 8, 15 and 16th! I’ll be in the pit 📯! XO Malissa