I am excited to share this absolutely fabulous find (can you tell I like the word fabulous?) Flipping through the Pottery Barn catalog a while ago, I came across this French Wire Hamper that I immediately fell in love with! I not only wanted one, I wanted two! I just love the vintage look but that it's absolutely functional as well, with a washable ticking drawstring liner. Looking at the description further, I saw it even fully collapses for easy storage!
Love, love, love!
What I didn't love, staring me in the face, was the price. $149! Just for kicks, I put it in my cart and headed to the check out line ;0) Hmmm, shipping, $21. Tax, $15.81. Now, I wasn't looking at a mere $149, but a grand total of $185.81! Grrrr. I closed the catalog.
A day or so later, I decided to google "french wire hamper." Yeah! Hits! Oh wait... they're nearly all the Pottery Barn version. Hmmm. There HAS to be another one out there in cyberspace, or at least something similar? Not much luck. I tried various search terms -- "vintage laundry hamper", "french wire basket", but either got the same Pottery Barn hits or other non-laundry hamper items. Not that I wouldn't also love to snag this fabulous basket as well, but I refocused my concentration on the wire hamper. Wire hamper, wire hamper. I was getting nowhere fast. Of course, there was eBay. Yes, I found a few there. I watched a couple auctions, and both went for over $100 plus shipping. Hmmm. Less than PB, but still not great... so I decided to keep looking.
Then I thought of a fabulous blog/website I just love (yes, I said fabulous) that is perfect for this quest! Reichel Broussard of Copy Cat Chic has a great design eye, a super cool site and an adorable baby daughter. Reichel regularly posts designer items and their "copy cat" counterpart -- often either the exact same item or something super similar, at a much lower price! LOVE her blog! In fact, after seeing this I just had to add these to my bedroom -- at the copy cat chic price of course!
Anyway, I posted on Copy Cat Chic's Facebook site to see if anyone out there had come across a copy cat version of my coveted french wire hamper. No luck...
Fast forward a couple months. I've longingly turned the pages of the Pottery Barn catalog to look at my french wire hamper and trolled the website too. I was down visiting my mom and grandma in Vancouver, WA. Mom and I love to hit up great vintage barn sales and shops, like the big Barn House Boys sale in Battleground, WA on July 30, 2011. I found some GREAT stuff there, I tell ya. Will post more about that sale later ;0)
So mom tells me about Monticello Antique Marketplace an indoor vintage/antiques place over in Portland, OR (aka land of no sales tax) that was hosting several special vendors in addition to their regulars. So off we went.
Love, love, love! I mean, what's not to love? There were soooo many things I wanted to bring home! Imagine my surprise and delight when I spied the exact french wire hamper I had been coveting at Pottery Barn! I ran over to it and started inspecting. First, the price -- $69!! Yes! The ONLY difference I noticed was that this version didn't have casters. I was fine with that! So I scooped that one up fast. Woohoo! Then, just a few feet away, another one! AHHH! This one had casters! I checked the price. Hmmmm. $84... a bit more than the first, but let's see, no tax, no shippping, wayyyyy less than PB -- yeah, I scooped that one up too! Yeahhh! I excitedly pulled up the Pottery Barn version on my phone to show my mom. We folded them flat, and put them in the car! It was a super score!
A few days later, I went to Joann Fabrics with a coupon for 50% off one regular price item. I picked up some red ticking fabric to make a liner for each (just $3.49 per yard).
So, that's my fabulous find for this Friday! I'll do a follow up post once I have the liners made. Super excited!
Have a great weekend ;0)
Tracy
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