Vintage Movers & Shakers: BackGarage and Cushion Chicago

Today I attended the Back Garage & Cushion Chicago's Open House at their studio space in Garfield Park. Katherine Raz is the woman behind Back Garage, I consider her one of the 'movers and shakers' in the Chicago vintage scene. On her old blog she posted thrift tours by neighborhood, did weekly craig's list roundups of vintage furniture & accessories and also emailed out a 'hot list' with her picks of the best estate sales, rummage sales and garage sales featuring Midcentury vintage.

Nowadays she organizes The Vintage Bazaar with her friend Libby; Albert & I actually split a booth at the very first one last year held at the Dankhaus in Lincoln Square. This coming May the Bazaar will be featuring 45 vendors and will be held in Pilsen. Katherine also sells her vintage furniture and wares online via etsy and her website. She also now has a shared showroom/studio with Cushion Chicago, the reason for today's celebration.

Originally I posed Katherine & Sarah on a row of awesome laundromat-style plastic chairs; Sarah's friend David came up with the idea for the above photo. Yes, Katherine is perched precariously on a tiny school chair that is on top of 2 stacked metal tanker desks. Thankfully there wasn't some sort of accident!

It was amazing what they fit into the small space without it feeling cluttered or cramped. Both of them possess great merchandising and display skills-- everything felt tidy yet had a creative flair. I'd be happy to export the scene above whole-- tulip chairs? Blue 1950s sofa? Yes please!

Yes, I've lost the battle against becoming an old cat lady, Katherine gave me a deal on this paint by numbers cat picture that I couldn't refuse. I'd actually be eying it in her etsy shop for some while and finally had to give into my kitschy taste. Being in the arts field it's a little embarrassing to admit how much I love 'art' like this-- let's just say it's (mass produced) folk art.

The aforementioned laundromat chairs. It would be fun to have them in an entry hall as your landing strip-- you know the area where all the boots/hats/coats/purses hang out.

At the beginning of the afternoon this set of vintage Fisher Price worker dudes (don't they remind you of the 'YMCA' song?) were sitting demurely on an Eames chair. By the end of the day they were hanging precariously off the edge of the chair and one had fallen into the jaws of a plastic dinosaur waiting below, oh no!

I was sorely tempted by this set of teak placemats. Would I use them? Probably not. But they have places for your cutlery, glass and plate, perfect for the slightly OCD vintage geek!

Been looking for one of those industrial chic tanker desks? Katherine has two for you!

Two more pieces I fell in love with-- jumbo sized filing cabinets in bright hues. As shown, they'd be great for winter storage or stowing away extra clothing.

By the time I'd gotten around to getting my own picture taken, most of the natural light had unfortunately faded (yes I stayed that long!). Excuse the dim lighting and grainyness in the above photo, we tried the flash but it just ended up too washed out. I'm holding a vintage Hex sign purchased from Katherine (and notice the paint-by-number kittens behind me). The photo was taken by Sarah's friend David-- he's quite good at posing people.

All in all quite a few people made it out to the Open House, I got to mingle with some of Chicago's vintage gliterati and we geeked out about what estate sales we'd been to recently, debated whether a credenza's knobs indicated whether it was designed by Paul McCobb or 'the school of' George Nelson, and quitting your day job to pursue the life of a vintage dealer. Morgan, of Manly Vintage, is so dedicated he's THAT guy who sleeps in his car to be one of the first ones into an estate sale to scoop up mantiques. If you haven't checked out Morgan and Jayson's blog/online shop you should, for some reason not many men exist in the vintage blog world. Can anyone point me to some others?

Quite a good way to spend a Sunday, I'd say. Come summer someone should host a vintage bbq! Who's game?