What's in a Name

Hello Darlings,
So, if you have read any of our previous posts you may be wondering why we name our furniture pieces, like, "hello who does that?" Well our reason was two fold, one because it was practical for inventory purposes and helped when we started getting more pieces, second because, well it's just fun to use all those baby names you secretly pick out but know they would never work with your last name.

So, how do we pick ours? Well it just depends on the piece and how it is shaped and the color of the fabric. For the most part, many of our pieces are given female names, but we have a few men in our collection as well. The first piece we actually named was our white chaise lounge, Betty White. We were kind of basic when we chose her name. Since the chaise had an old Hollywood look we wanted to give it a celebrity name. Since the fabric was white we just kind of thought of "Betty White"...Yeah not too much thought went into that one, but the more we added pieces the more fun we started having with naming them.

Robin chair

Lucille Ball chair

Sometimes we can't decide on the same name, so that's when we turn to our social media. We will take a poll and ask friends what name they think the piece embodies. That's how our love seat, Marilyn Monroe was born!

Marilyn Monroe love seat

We don't know how many pieces we will end up with in the future,and maybe we will run out of names, but for now we do find joy in picking out that special name for each piece.

XOXO,
It's Vintage Darling

Betty White

Hello Darlings,
       We wanted to introduce to you our #1 rented out piece, Miss Betty White. She stands at 3 feet and 11 inches tall and 6 feet long,  has porcelain skin with golden hair that silhouettes her body..Or in furniture terms, she has white fabric with a gold wooden frame (but that way kind of sounds boring!) okay, okay, we will try to stop sounding clever with our words, we will just get to point of this post, her before and after process.

 After we had our two main pieces, our Cinderella sofa and vintage truck, we started looking for others to add to our collection. We came across this ad in craigslist, and the seller was asking $450 for the chaise.

We offered $400 and they accepted. The seller, who was in her late 40s or early 50s said it belonged to her grandma, and had been in the family for a long time, so we knew we needed to do something fabulous with it. We could not agree on a color so we went to our facebook and Instagram and asked for other's opinions. With the feedback we received, we decided on a white colored fabric. This time we called an upholster, one with good reviews, and asked him how much material we would be needing and how much the piece would be to change the fabric (he quoted us $275 for labor). 

We went down to Hancock Fabrics and picked out a micro suede material (8 yds @ $7.99/yd), since it was going to be a light color we needed a material that would not stain easily. We also went with a white Gimp (border of fabric) which only cost us about ($4).

Before it went off the upholster we were advised to paint the wood part, so we turned to Roslyn's mom, who is an expert in painting wood pieces. She used a gold metallic color by Rust-Oleum ($3.99/can)

and highlighted the piece's accents and crevices with a dark glaze, also by Rust-Oleum, in the color Java Brown.($30/can. very little was used in this process)

Then off to the upholster she went....


Over $700 spent on her total work done and we had our final piece, Betty White!

One final note: Before we rented her out we scotch guarded the fabric and has really helped to minimize stains.

XOXO,

It's Vintage Darling

The Full Story

Photo by:Marisol Izaguirre

Hello Darlings! So, we kind of gave you a little summary of how we got started with our vintage rentals, but we thought we would give you the full story of how it all started.....

Well, when we first fixed up Cinderella (our first piece) our initial direction was to re-sell it. We went online and checked what other vintage sofa prices were ranging, on Ebay we saw them starting at around $800 and even went up to $2000 . Since we paid a total of $740 with all the repairs we were thinking we would get our money back and then sum..Nope! We posted on our local craigslist and priced it at $900 **crickets** then went down to $800, still no one called. Even though we loved the sofa and could have kept it for ourselves, there was no way we were going to keep it around with all our indoor dogs around it (two out of our three dogs are Basset hound mix so they shed terribly). 

Any-who, we started thinking of what to do with this blue vintage sofa....

We had some friends who did photography and thought maybe it would be a cool prop for their clients to sit on while taking pictures. We reached out to two of them and got their feedback, giving us a thumbs up. We then decided we would do a little market research (tried to put some of those marketing college classes to use). We pitched our idea to a wedding planner as well as other photographers who we didn't know in our area. Our little idea was well received, so it made us really consider renting it out, as well as finding more vintage pieces. Then we thought, "are there any companies out there who do this?" We found tons of companies that did the same thing we were wanting to do, but none in our area, so we decided to go further with our idea. We also had a 1947 black Chevrolet, fully restored, so that was also added to our start-up collection. 

Next, we decided on our name and went to register it at the court house and set-up our Facebook and Instagram pages. 

We contacted our photographer friend Marisol Izaguirre, and asked if she would be willing to take some professional photos of our two pieces so we could start promoting them. Thankfully she agreed and we offered a trade-out of our pieces in return for the photos. 

Photo by Marisol Izaguirre

Finally after three months of waiting, we got our first call........

xoxo,

It's Vintage Darling 

Frequently Asked Questions

Hello Darlings! Just in case you had any questions in regards to how our rentals work, read on to find out some we have answered.

Surprise Mother's Day photo shoot featuring our chair, side table and books *booze not included by us*

How do the rentals work?

• All our pieces are rented out by the occasion, and depending on the piece will determine the price. A small delivery fee will be charged and will be based on the distance to the desired location. 

How long do I have my rental for?

• Your rental can start as early as 7 a.m. and end as late as 12 a.m  (midnight). Anything past midnight will have an additional charge   *depending on location will depend on extension fee*

Is there an option to pick up?

• Yes, you are more than welcome to pick up your piece(s), with the exception of a few listed below.  For large pieces that travel by truck, you are required to properly secure them during travel, and you will be responsible to provide your own tie-downs/rope. 

  * only pieces not available for self-pick up is our white/gold chaise lounge (Betty White)                          due to her sensitive fabric, pallet wall, and 1947 Chevy pick-up truck. *

When is payment due?

• As of now we do not require a deposit to hold your day, unless stated otherwise. Payment is due upon delivery. *For weddings we do require full payment one week before your date. This is especially to help the bride/groom avoid worrying about any payments on their big day!

What if it rains, and my event is outside?

• We are more than happy to re-schedule your piece(s) as long as they are available on the next date of your choice. Of course if you decide to move the location to an indoor venue, then you can keep your original rental date.

Can I come see the pieces in person?

• Yes, come on by! Please be sure to contact us because we show the pieces by appointment only. 

If you have any other questions/concerns please contact/share them with us.

XOXO,

It's Vintage Darling
https://www.facebook.com/Its-Vintage-Darling-