Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Sideboard, Bargains and Serendipity

A year ago last Christmas, MOTH bought this indoor water fountain for me. You can see the water bubbling from the top and it runs down the sides of the globe. Because I wanted sage green accents in my kitchen/dining area, I placed it on a soft green runner on the sideboard.

What I call a side board is, I think, what most people over here call a buffet. We called it a sideboard because years ago, probably Victorian times, the sideboard held the side dishes for a meal and the drawers and cupboards held dishes, cutlery and table cloths etc. Ours has never been used for that. It was made and purchased in England and was my mother's. When we moved over here in 1960 we brought a few pieces of furniture with us. This was one of them.

The colors of my kitchen /dining area are sage green and apricot. (The walls are supposed to be apricot in this photo). The sideboard has a hand carved oak veneer and the dining table that we came a cross in a garage sale is also oak. I placed the globe on the sideboard and for the past year, apart from the candles behind it, I had two photographs in gold frames on either side of the globe.

I was never happy with the photographs in that location -- too cluttered. So when I went out to Michael's, our local craft store, today to see what I could find for the fire place screen, (see last post) I thought I'd see if I could find anything for the sideboard as well.


I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw these two birds almost the exact same shade of green and in a very similar design. Not only that -- they were only $5.00 each!!


Here, I have placed them next to the globe so that you can see the similarity between the birds and the globe. I could have got two birds in exactly the same pose but I am too much of a fanatic about symmetry. So I shut down my urge and took two different poses. Here's the final look.


All in all I'm very happy with my choices. The flowers at the back are in the center of the five place candelabra. I'm not sure if I will keep them there, although they are a pretty shade of green and white. And I may do something with the other candle holders, two of which hold tiny African Violets plants which actually grow in that place. I do not have a green thumb. The other two have candles in them. I think I still have to experiment a bit back there.

All this happened in a weekend in which I also found a long sleeved top in shades of lilac and muted purple which exactly matched a pair of pants I have. The great thing about that purchase was that it had been marked down three times and when I went to pay for it I found it had been marked down again -- to $5.00 !!!

This was my weekend for bargains and serendipity!

7 comments:

kaybee said...

Absolutely love those birds, Chris. I have a feeling some of your readers are quickly going to head to Michael's!

Interestingly our kitchen accents are also in sage green.

Did you find anything for your fireplace screen?

Ken said...

You got to love a bargain. Like the detail on side board/ buffet.

It has been snowing here for more than 24 hours. Do you think you can send some warmer weather this way?

Anonymous said...

Wow. Well you couldn't find a nicer looking set than this is. I think you are a lucky person.

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Dips Pen
Abraham Lincoln's Blog

Wanda said...

Well if that doesn't look absolutely lovely... The color of the wood, the green runner and your glove and birds.... Oh my I love the look.

It was interesting to know that the buffet was called a sideboard and why.... my mother had one, and I call mine a credenza... Don't know why...the person that gave it to me called it that!!!

Anyway...your display is beautiful.

Jose said...

How cool is that? If you don't tell me I totally would have tought it was a set. The look great on top of the sideboard.

Mrs Mac said...

I would have snapped up those birds too, they are lovely! I'm jealous!

Sideboards aren't used much here any more because homes, especially the newly built ones, tend to have such small rooms! We have a small sideboard-type piece of furniture and we keep all our old records in it (I mean music records, not old files and paper. LOL!)

You see a lot of sideboards in second-hand-furniture shops, especially old, chunky ones. Because of having room for them again. The same about big old chunky wardrobes.

It's a shame really. People seem to prefer to buy modern, flat pack self-assembly furniture. I don't- I like to know I have good, solid piece of wood!!! Luckily our living room is big enough to take it.

I do love those birds! If you ever get bored of them let me know. Our sofas are dark green and they would look great in this room. LOL!

ChrisJ said...

Wanda: I looked it up in my dictionary -- a credenza is a sideboard. You learn something new every day!

Helena: Thanks for the info about sideboards. I'm still learning.

The birds you can get at Michaels craft stores if you have one near you. I don't mind sharing my blessings!