Cheap & Chic of the Week: Deals on Dishes

Good Morning Lacquered Lifers. As a kid in the late 80’s and early 90s in Los Angeles, I remember going to Pottery Barn with my mom.  As its name would suggest, back then Pottery Barn was a store that sold dishware and glassware.  Today there are so many companies to choose from when purchasing dishware that I rarely find myself looking to Pottery Barn. This morning I was happy to find an email in my inbox letting me know that Pottery Barn was offering 20% off all china, and free shipping – and there are some exceptionally good looking dishes to choose from. Below are some of my favorites. pb 4First up are the Spring Blossom Salad Plates – $39.50/set of four. Cannot beat that price, and the pattern has quite a vintage quality to it. Looks like something that you might find on a breakfast table in a 1960s/70s kitchen. Pretty fab. pb 3Next up are the Leon Bowls – $11.50 ea. Inspired by Guatemalan pottery, these graphic bowls would be great paired with some simple white or blue plates. Or great as a featured plate for a meal of hearty winter soup or chili! pb 2I love these Zamora Dinner Plates – $46/set of four. I don’t have any dishes this color, and have been eyeing a lot of it recently, This rust color is a great winter color, and also something that would look great on a holiday or Thanksgiving table. pb 1Finally, my favorite, the Elsie Dinnerware. Reminiscent of traditional Delftware, this blue and white pattern is sure to be a staple on your dining room table for years to come. Dress it up, dress it down – you cannot go wrong the floral motif on these plates. They’re timeless. Dishwasher safe and a  fraction of the cost of true Delftware – $120.50/16 piece set – you could buy more than you need just in case you drop one.

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Throwback Thursday: Studio Daze

IMG_2507Good Morning Lacquered Lifers. Today I thought I would embrace the concept of Throwback Thursday and share some photos of my Philadelphia studio apartment that I lived in from 2009-2011 while I attended graduate school. The studio was 12′ x 24′, and while that may seem small, it fit me just perfectly. Sure I was hanging clothes in a closet in the tiny kitchen that only had a half fridge and two burner stove (no oven), but there was room for my bed, my desk, some great ikea club chairs, and I even through four person dinner parties in that apartment with a little drop leaf table I would pull off the wall and open up in the middle of the room. And the location? Perfect. I was one block from Rittenhouse Square. IMG_2892Built at the turn of the 20th century as a single family home, this Philadelphia row house between 20th and 21st Streets was once quite grand. However, by the time I got there, the home was broken up into small studio and one bedroom apartments that weren’t in the best shape … Here is a photo of the building from the exterior. See the dormer windows on the fourth floor? That’s my apartment. Even though the building no longer looked the way it had 100 years prior, there was still evidence of its past in some of the architectural details on the facade. IMG_2505Everything in that apartment was bought on a shoestring budget and became a DIY project, or was something I inherited, or was a gift from my parents. And some of these pieces are still a part of my life here in Charleston. Those silver tables are now coral and live on the piazza. IMG_2513My teeny tiny kitchen. And to think that I made dinner parties worth of dinners in that space! All on the stovetop b/c I had no oven. I painted the walls Benjamin Moore Caribbean Blue Water in high gloss which made a teeny space feel more like a jewel box than a closet. IMG_2517And the walls of the main room were Benjamin Moore Bird’s Egg. I loved that little studio. With all the studying and work I was doing, I probably spent more time in that apartment in Philadelphia than both of my NYC apartments combined. It seems like only yesterday, but I took these photos six years ago. Whoa. Happy Throwback Thursday. 

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