Three Cheers to Domestica’s Bradley Lincoln; Or, Midwest Mid-Century Missives

Three cheers to Chicago Home + Garden Domestica blogger Bradley Lincoln.  Or should I say three chairs?  Because of Brad’s Domestica column, I’m the proud owner of two dark yellow Eames shell chairs and a lone gray one.  It seems like it was just last week that Bradley tipped off Domestica readers about the Elkhart, Indiana Public Library’s surplus Herman Miller furniture e-mail auction.  Preferring to limit the pool of competitive bidders, I took a less resourceful tact and did everything in my power to bury the news.  Which might have worked, because I won the chairs.

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Final sale price: $323.50

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So it’s because of Bradley that I found myself driving to Elkhart to pick them up yesterday.  I arrived on-time, and the friendly warehouse attendant said I could choose the ones I wanted.  As I compared nicks, scratches and leg pads, I overheard the man chatting with two other people -  another Chicago fellow who’d similarly made the two hour drive to pick up his goodies and a local women who’d dropped by to see what all the fuss was about.  The woman seemed incredulous that people were driving all the way from Chicago to pick up “this junk,” but the Chicagoan explained its significance in great detail.  I found myself alternately rolling my eyes, shaking my head and nodding in agreement.  But heck, maybe the local woman was right.  Mid-century modern furniture was alley-fare in my hometown, and I can’t remember thinking of it as anything but ugly.  I also remember when it stopped looking so ugly and starting looking beautiful just a few years ago.  Liberal education or liberal indoctrination?  You decide.

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Either way, when I remember leaving those pieces to their landfill fate, I feel the same kind of burning regret I suspect Bill Gate’s unrequited first love must feel now and again.*  Am I that Seattle girl who failed to recognize the inner greatness below Gates’ then dweeb-y veneer?  Or perhaps I’m the dashing character Richard Gere played in the 90’s Gary Marshall classic Pretty Woman?  The business man who realizes the error of his ways, throws a little money at the problem and fixes things happily ever after-style with a newly reupholstered Knoll sofa in my home?  And who’s the prostitute in this scenario, because I’m getting confused?

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Eager to prove that small town antique malls with incredible deals aren’t just urban legends, I decided to check out the scene before heading back to Chicago.  My first stop was the Elkhart Antique Mall, which plays home to 25 dealers and where I spent over an hour browsing the terrific selection.  Here’s what struck me.  Owls.  Lots and lots of owls.  A huge (huge) framed map of the United States for something like a hundred bucks (which is a good deal).  Lots of elephants. Lots of walking sticks.  No arrows (damn it).  But the mall had loads of goodies the taste maker’s haven’t proclaimed cool yet, all of which I no doubt passed obliviously.

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The prices, while certainly much better than Chicago, didn’t seem strike me as shockingly low, but a dealer tending to her booth suggested visiting another antique mall with really spectacular deals located just ten minutes up the road.  That’s the problem; no matter how far you travel, the really fab deals are always ten minutes up the road.  As I was leaving I asked the woman working the register if she knew of any other good antique malls, and another customer named Michael said if I wanted to follow him down the road, he’d lead me to a place called Heart’s Desire.  I know that sentence sounds weird, but the whole thing was above board.  How apropos would it be if Heart’s Desire was the fabled antique mall with the unbelievably low prices?  I ask you again.  How apro-frickin’-pos?

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Final sale price: $255.00 (cheap!)

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Michael turned out to be a dealer himself who owns a shop in a popular nearby Michigan vacation destination.  He asked if I was in the biz, and when I told him I was a writer, he asked me if I was the guy who wrote Strange Closets.  Actually I think he said something like Strange Carpeting, something that was close enough to prove what I’ve always suspected; I’m huge in Three Oaks.  Oops.

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Once at Heart’s Desire, we went our separate shopping ways, although I could have used the company.  The malls fluorescent lighting was making itself known as the sky darkened (prematurely it seemed), and I began to feel tired, hungry and weary of wanting amazing things I didn’t need.  Perhaps that particular combination of ills caused me to hallucinate, because I’ll be gosh darned if I didn’t see an actual United States Postal Office outpost – in the antique mall!  Now that’s a terrific way to help a small business with federal funds.  And convenient.  And speaking frankly, bizarre.

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As I made my way out, I bumped into Michael again, who showed me a pair of tufted velvet upholstered slipper chairs and asked me what I thought.  I said I thought they were cool, and thankfully they were.  Michael pointed to the finely crafted wood legs and motioned for me to feel the rose-colored upholstery; he explained that it’s rather difficult if not impossible to procure such a high quality velvet (something having to do with all the chemicals ingested by mammals and how it impacts their hair).  The chairs would sell for thousands in Chicago, but at Heart’s Desire, the listed price was only . . . .  I’d love to share the price with you, but I think that’s grounds for what is essentially a fatwa in the antiques world, and I just can’t live like that.

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What do you think ladies and gentlemen?  Was Michael’s slipper chair score a one-off bout of good luck?  Or do the Elkhart antique malls prove the old urban myths about the amazing shops with the killer prices in the small towns just ten minutes up the road! true after all?  Did I get my hearts desire at Heart’s Desire?  Only time and further investigation will tell.  Until we know for sure, rest assured that Chicago Home + Garden’s Domestica writer Bradley Lincoln is on the case.

Click here for Hello Elkhart’s antique directory.

Click here to subscribe to Bradley Lincoln’s Chicago Home + Garden blog Domestica.  It’s good tips.  And witty too.

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Final sale price: $363.00 (losing this beaut killed me)

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* It’s a long story, but I only wanted one yellow shell, so if you can’t live without the classic Eames stackable, let me know, and I’ll sell it to you for just 35% – 40% more than I paid for it.  (I also have a vintage Eames DCM I wouldn’t mind unloading).

All photos courtesy Elkhart Public Library

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