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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Plexi-Glass House of Horrors

I have been on the hunt for a source for the acrylic legs that I will put on a club chair for the new showroom...... 
I ended up at the PLEXI-GLASS House of HORRORS
I was given a lead to go to this place in Miami -
in the design district.
*50 miles there and 50 miles back
First of all.....
I wish I could have video taped my drive down Miami Avenue.
OMG.
Scary.
The poverty is distressing, and that is another post all together.
Finally I find the place, 
I walk in and it is so packed with plexi-glass products
{and tons of porcelain}
that I had to put all my bags down in one place,
because if you moved or turned ....
UH OH ..... 
CRASH BAM BOOM!!!
-you would knock things down.
I wasn't in the mood for;
' YOU BREAK IT-YOU BOUGHT IT'
and 
HEY!!!! I thought this was a PLEXI-GLASS Company?@###!!!!

{these are the legs I need to have made into acrylic}
The woman who owns the place
has been there 40 years....
{at least!!!!}
She was 83 years old & her husband was right next to her.
They worked the place together.
{g-d bless their hearts}


I asked her for a price
on the 4 legs for my chair,
while she was working on the estimate
for my chair legs......
I decided to go into the back of the store where 
I could see she had some interesting antiques.....

including one of my favorite things 
in the world...
 ' Blackamoors.'

to learn more if you don't know about Blackamoors.

YES. A PAIR!!!!
If only I had a client who needed or wanted a pair ....

What a find!!
I would be a HERO.

I walk further back and this place doesn't end.
I am not kidding. 
It really doesn't end!
And did I mention that only the very front of portion 
of what turns out to be a 2 story warehouse 
was air conditioned???
I still can't figure out how I ever ended up back here in Florida.
I hate hot weather!!!

I head back to the owner and she has a price for me-
it's over $2,000.00.
HUH???
I knew Miami was 'drug central'
but this was ridiculous.
What, I wondered was she taking?

My expression , which I tried to control, 
was one of surprise. 
I am sure of this because 
I had to pick my eye-brows up off the floor 
and put them back on my face.
Here are a few of the other things I found in this place.
which turned out to be a treasure trove of fine antiques.
*my mom , I am sure must know this place 
and this woman from her days working in design in Miami.
These were breath taking.
Big. 
{ 30 " high?}
See plexi-glass vitrine?
These images do no do any of these things justice.
The place had NO LIGHTS ON.
Some of the things photographed in this post 
were discovered by pointing my camera and taking a picture.
I used my camera flash like a 'flashlight.'

Another 'PAIR'


There they are in the warehouse.


What do we have here?
Let's look more closely....
Nice FOO'S.
But what I really like here is the piece above the FOOS.
I would design an entire powder room around it.
I would use this piece over the sink.
It has a mirror and 2 glass cabinets which you could display 
'priceless' items.
The surround around the sink would be designed/matched to this mirrored piece.
Talk about 'WOW FACTOR'....
very impressive indeed.

Have a Great Day!!!
Happy Hunting/Shopping for your latest project.

I hope you enjoyed my little 
'House of Horror' Adventure.

XX's

P.S. I forgot this one;
I am telling you....
the place had no end to it's treasures.

Renée Finberg 'TELLS ALL' in her BLOG..... To 'The Trade' Interiors,To The Trade inc. ,Boca Raton,Palm Beach,Boca Raton Florida,Interior Design Resources,All custom upholstery, wood furniture, stainless steel,window treatments,and re-upholstery. Including built-in, wall units, and built in banquette sofa seating. All Hospitality custom interior work, upholstered walls and niche doors,House of Horror, Antiques, Elegant Blackamoors,  PlexiGlass, porcelain ,House of Horror, Antiques, Elegant Blackamoors,  PlexiGlass, porcelain 
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15 comments:

  1. Tell her she is out of sight for
    price. Can't wait to get there. How much for painting of lambs?

    mama

    ReplyDelete
  2. Renee,
    Your posts always cheer me up. I think I am the only one in these ruts until I read what you have gotten into, haha.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Teresa
    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Renee,
    You are SO in the right job. Your enthusiasm screams out from my computer.You love each and every one of those objects with such a passion...... I can't believe the price of the acrylic legs !!....and, I can't believe the owners ages.Good on them for still working but, they just need to drop their prices a little and live in the real world !!!!haha. Were some of the items in their store reasonably priced or was it all a bit of a rip-off ? !!!!
    I presume you didn't get them to make the chair legs so, I hope you find someone to make them at a much more reasonable price. XXXX

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a scream this post was, I was laughing my head off (pick my eyebrows off the floor.) I can't imagine any space in Miami not air conditioned fully in August, whew. Anyway, this was wonderful, and yes treasure abound. Thanks for sharing your adventure so fabulously!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jax,

    it is funny you ask if they were 'rip off artists'
    they were.

    i asked them about this one painting
    of which i knew where it was from,
    and i knew the price it should have been....
    she said ;
    "i can let you have that for $2000.00"

    i thought ;
    what? is $2000.00 the price of the day!?!!#@!

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. What an adventure! The things we'll do to in search of great design. We hope you found what you were looking for.

    Angela and Renee

    ReplyDelete
  7. Renee, Are you kidding? Did they really want $2000.00 for the legs? I would have had to pick more than my eyebrows up off the floor. Love the blackamoor. We have a couple of blackamoors that we were fortunate enough to buy several years ago. You are the first person in blog land that I have ever heard mention them. I love them...Not so funny story...when we moved in our house a fellow was hanging pictures and turned and knocked one and then the other over and legs and arms were flying everywhere. I almost had a heart attack. Fortunately we have a really good restorer in town and several thousand dollars later , you would never know it happened. Have a great week. Mona

    ReplyDelete
  8. mona

    ugh..........
    i would be crying the blues
    if i owned 'blackamoors' that were
    'KNOCKED' over by accident.

    i would want to knock them out by accident as well.

    not really....but it would be in my thought bubble.

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for a good laugh first thing this morning!
    "Picking my eyebrows off the floor" too funny, though I would have had to do the same..umm......2000 buckaroos for 4 legs? Were they made of lead crystal:) Oh no plexiglass, I say 500 tops!
    On a brighter note, it looks like one heck of a great little store, even without AC and lights (huh?) but my hunch is everything there was overpriced? If 4 acrylic legs are 2000 I don't even want to know what all the other goodies are. Yikes!
    Fun to look, great to discover but man its a bummer when its all a rip off. Happy searching, I will most certainly think of you if I should find a great plexiglass source...will actually by at NY gift show today, so you never know!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Do you know that it was only a LONG way into this post before I realised you weren't talking about a pair of acrylic ladies' legs. LOL! I was so taken in with your house of horrors theme that I figured you were going to have some fun and stick clear acrylic copies of human feet.

    You always brighten my day with your words! Virginia x

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's Mama, I came back to read the comments, Lady's legs. I am still laughing.
    Like the Venetian peice.

    ReplyDelete
  12. HI Renee

    Thank you so much for your lovely comments. You are always very kind.
    Hmmm ..book. Not a bad idea.

    Renee, H Studio in CA ones ( I do not know if still) had an representation in Australia. I know they have a lot of acrylic pieces of furniture and also legs etc.
    You might already contacted them but if not...
    http://www.haziza.com/Dataview/Dataview.asp?Id=1281&CId=2&P=14&ProductSKU=BBC2

    Also Muniz http://munizplastics.com/

    Have a wonderful day
    XXX
    Viera

    ReplyDelete
  13. Too funny! The pictures you used to punctuate your post cracked me up! That place is at once creepy and fascinating. You can't look away! But $2000 for 4 legs?

    ReplyDelete
  14. V
    thank you.
    i will most probably be using muniz.
    but the other site you sent is fabulous xxx thank you

    ReplyDelete
  15. Renee, if you are interested, we have a wonderful fabricator here in Dallas who does beautiful work in plexiglass. I had a beautiful plinth done for an antique Buddha head a few months ago. I am happy to provide contact information if you would be interested in calling to talk to them. Lots of designers here in the area use this company with gorgeous results. I know they would be happy to talk to you about making the legs you need.

    ReplyDelete


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About Renée Finberg

I have been in this business since the age of 22.

I love what I do and cannot imagine my life without Design.

Design Challenges are great.

And because of those challenges

I have imported fine antique pieces from Paris,

Designed and Manufactured Furniture,

Created Fantastic Window Treatments,

And solved all kinds of spatial & architectural issues

With my unique style.

If I can't find it, I create it.

My rooms would make excellent movie sets.

I am a visual, tactile and audio sensitive individual.

Creating is what I live for, not math, not spelling, not science.

Just Great Design.

Just imagine how it would be if each of us,

If only for a few hours of everyday,We could be in a space that is our very own.A place that is exactly the way we want it to be

Surrounded by all the things we wanted to see,

The atmosphere we wanted feel, smell and the sound we wanted to listen to.

Private Paradise

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Renee Finberg 'TELLS ALL' in her Adventures in Design by Renee Finberg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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