I’m home! After spending a week on the road (and away from my blog) I’m back!
On Monday of last week, the 9th of November, I left my home in South Florida and began my journey to the hillbilly infested mountains of East Tennessee. Did I say “hillbilly”? I meant “bear”! J/K
I had hoped to find scores of treasures along the way but my efforts proved futile. Awhile back, Josh and I happened upon a shop in St. Augustine which was run by a British ex-pat. Well, now that I write that, I’m not so sure she is actually British. But anyways, Antique Warehouse of St. Augustine was a really cool and inspiring showcase of American, English and French antiques. I had signed up to receive their newsletters and in their past e-mail blast, I learned of the impending retirement of the darling owner, and the subsequent closing of the fascinating shop. Knowing the inventory was gonna be marked down, I made a point of popping in on my way to Edisto Beach (where I was staying overnight to split up the drive) but the prices were still a little rich for my blood as both a consumer and a retailer. I also tried huntin for gems at a few thrifts store but kept comin up empty handed.
I liked these antique keyhole escutcheons!
I enjoyed my brief stay in Edisto before making my way up and over to Knoxville Tuesday. The drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains at this time of year can’t be beat! The thick forest was bursting with reds and yellows creating a welcoming, warm arrival into East Tennessee.
Low Country - Edisto Island
Somewhere along I-26 in North Carolina.
On Wednesday, my brother was off work thanks to Veteran’s Day. And thanks also be to the veterans who gave everything (including their time away from their families) so that we get to enjoy our freedom and liberty to spend time with our families. May God bless you all! Tim (my brother) took me into downtown Knoxville to show me around. We drove through the old city before parking and walking up to the parade in progress. Although we didn’t stay for the whole thing, as we were meeting my sister-in-law, Faith, for lunch, it was great to see the people of Knoxville applauding and revering the men and women of the hour.
Downtown Knoxville.
JROTC drill team.
My heart melted when I saw this woman passing out flags.
Old Glory waving in the wind.
Following our lunch in Oak Ridge, TN, Tim took me into historic Clinton to do a little antiquin. Although I didn’t buy anything for the shop, it was fun to see what other dealers were offering. I definitely recommend exploring the Clinton Antique Trail if you’re ever in East Tennessee.
Stars and Stripes forever!
From my "View" these smiles are all demented.
"Vaseline Glass" displayed with a black light.
Thursday morning I got up early and made my way over to West Knox for an estate sale. I was running a little late, but was still 11th in line for the sale. Picked up some really fun things including a set of Pabst Blue Ribbon goblets and a “Trucker’s Companion” pocket knife.
"Truckers Companion" pocket knife.
The next sale was a bust, but I did manage to find a few keepers at the thrift stores I ran into before my last sale of the day. The sale in Sequoya Hills was by appointment only and I was given a 1pm call time. First off, I gotta say, the neighborhood was amazing! And the house was no exception, either. From the pink metal cabinets in the kitchen to the hand painted murals on the dining room walls and all the furnishings in-between, the home was a perfect 1950’s showcase. Or time capsule. Whatever you wanna call it, it was awesome!
Just one of the many murals.
I grabbed a couple little things, but my score was a pair of lounge chairs designed by Michael Taylor from the “Far East” collection for Baker Furniture. They’re just ridiculous. And the (now previous) owner of the chairs had kept the catalogue cutouts from when she ordered the chairs in 1959. Kind of neat to see her notes for the order.
Lounge chairs designed by Michael Taylor for Baker Furniture.
Tim and Faith each took a vacation day to hang out with me on Friday. We hit up one flea market before spending the day in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. It was nice to take a break from junkin’ to enjoy the great outdoors. We even saw 5 bears in the park!!
Saturday morning I got up and routed out our day. Hoping to take advantage of last day sales, we returned to the first estate sale I went to on Thursday and did indeed get some deals! Faith pointed out a pair of Abe Lincoln bookends that seriously weighed 800 pounds that I hadn’t seen before. Snagged those babies to keep for myself. Ha! I also picked up a beautiful tilt ball jug by Hall. Our next sale was a mess. Literally. It felt like an episode of Hoarders, but I did find a retro Viko side chair that I stole for five bucks! And I also picked up 4 Mid Century metal folding chairs from KARM (Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries thrift store).
The hideous upholstery has to go, and the walnut arms need to be refinished, but this chair oozes character.
Vintage Cosco folding chairs from the late 50's.
It’s funny because I initially thought I’d bring home a few antique side tables, maybe an armoire, pie safe or credenza, but I ended up with 7 Mid Century Modern chairs! Seven. Ha! But the trip was amazing. I really enjoyed visiting a region of this amazing county that I’d never spent much time in and it was equally as great to spend time with my family.
Everyone's always asking us where we pick up our vintiques. And well, the answer is two, three, maybe even four or five-fold. We've been to auctions and estate sales. An occasional garage sale. We've even bought a couple things off Craigslist and believe it or not, thrift stores.
Back before we got married, Josh and I lived in Dogtown, a prominent Irish neighborhood in St. Louis, Missoui. Every once in a blue moon, we'd meander over to a couple of antique shops off McCausland and Manchester (well, technically Bruno and McCausland). Neither of us knew a thing about antiques; we just knew when we saw something cool.
I'd say that's where the thrill of the hunt began.
Josh standing in front of our old flat on Tamm Avenue.
Five and a half months after we got married, lightning struck our house while we were at a Tiger Army show. Long story short, we had to rebuild and replace everything! And that was when we were introduced to auctions.
One of my coworkers at PGAV Destinations turned us on to a modernism auction that took place twice a year in Clayton. I won't mention the name of the company because there's been a lot of drama with those guys and...well, it's just not important. The important thing is, it must be said, AUCTIONS ARE SO MUCH FUN!!!
If you've never been, do yourself a favor and find a reputable auction house and go to an auction. It was intimidating at first, but we learned the ropes quickly and are total pros now. Ha!
When we lived in Atlanta, we found a pretty decent auctioneer right up the street from us in Alpharetta called Four Seasons Auction Gallery. We hit up a couple of auctions there, but one in particular was so cool, they were auctioning a large collection of rare sci-fi, horror and movie memorabilia. I actually blogged about it on my Design Idiom blog if you're interested: "He Experimented in Horror!")
One of the many amazing horror movie posters from the auction.
Since being in South Florida, we've been to a couple of auctions put on by J. Sugarman Auction Corp. Most of their auctions are liquidations. We've bought a sink and faucet as well as a large three-tiered fountain. But! The best auction we've ever attended was when they sold an entire warehouse of furniture, paintings, knick-knacks and all kinds of other ridiculously cool things...cars, poolside furniture, clothing, everything really, from the set of Magic City(a Starz original series). I wish like heck we had started our business back then!
The show was set in 1960's Miami beach. I mean, you can imagine what they were auctioning. If you haven't seen the show, think Mad Men. Who hasn't seen that?!
While we did buy a lot of vintage pieces, I wish we would have bought so much more...
However! We did manage to make a pretty heft profit off one of the pieces before we even left the parking lot. We had won (they say "won" as if you're the lucky winner of a gift) an really unique Mid Century Modern coffee table produced by A.H. Stock that had a bar hidden inside. But I guess we really did "win" because some unlucky chump wasn't in the room while they were auctioning that lot number and missed his opportunity to bid. And his wife was pissed! So, we flipped that baby for a song! And, we didn't even have to touch it.
So, other than antique malls, thrift stores and auctions, we do a lot of estate sales. I know there are a couple websites that "advertise" sales, but we generally just use EstateSales.NET.
It's super user friendly and has become our weekend planning guide. We have gotten to know a lot of the estate sale company owners, so one of the things I do after I look at the pictures for the sales, is look to see who's hosting the sale.
If you go enough, you'll start to have your favorites. One of our preferred company's is Estate Sales of South Florida. The owner, Brigitte, is a doll and a pleasure to do deals with.
So that's it! And Craigslist, but that's always a crap-shoot. Ha!
Welcome to the quote-unquote official blog of Old Southern Soul. I'm Angela, the founder and creative director for Old Southern Soul (which I may abbreviate to OSS on occasion). We are currently a vintiques mini-store. In other words, a shop-in-shop. Or, as it's more commonly denoted - an antique mall booth. But OSS is so much more than a 5'x15' boutique space nestled among a blanket of booths within a Wal-Mart sized strip mall; we're a design-centric business.
By curating a carefully selected collection of antique and vintage goods, we aim to enrich the lives of those amazing folks we hope to call loyal customers. And if nothing else, we'd be honored if the lookie-loos find inspiration to reimagine their own spaces with better design sensibilities.
It's me, Angela! Posing in front of a beautiful marsh in Cape Cod.
Okay, okay, enough with the mission statement chatter. But before I allow this blog to blossom organically, I just wanna share a little background on how Old Southern Soul was born.
After relocating to Atlanta from St. Louis in 2010, I found myself slowly drifting away from the field of architecture which had been my vocation for 6 years. Having graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Interior Architecture and Product Design, I found myself gravitating back towards the world of furniture.
Long story short, my husband and I began driving through the hills of Forsyth County, Georgia, popping in on Estate Sales and Barn Sales. It easily became a shared passion of ours and after moving to South Florida a year and a half later, we made a serious hobby of junkin. I had started an Etsy shop (Gigi's Vintage Kitchen) while in Georgia, specializing in vintage kitchenware, so I continued to hunt for those kind of items, but now having a 2 car garage, I was on the lookout for furniture to refinish. I was finding so many pieces I couldn't pass up, so our garage quickly went from being my workshop to our storage unit.
I established the Maison Bord de Mer brand in May of 2014 as a rehabilitation project for destitute furniture. I started tackling my hoard and took my revitalized pieces to the internet classifieds.
I had pretty good success selling on Craigslist, but it wasn't without its fair share of creepers and flakes. So in early September of this year (2015) we began kicking around the idea of opening a shop-in-shop at a local antique mall.
On our way to the beach one hot and humid Saturday, we decided to pop into The Sugar Chest Antique Mall to scout it out. Next thing we knew, we were signing a year lease and the rest is history!
960 N Federal Hwy, Pompano Beach, FL 33062
Signing the lease!
3 Blue - My location as it looked before the previous tenant moved out.
Well, thanks so much for stopping by! Check back in to see what we're up to!
