Caught

When I moved into this new apartment, I wanted to furnish it with "modern" furniture. I'll admit that I was influenced by the taste of my former housemate, Noah, whose Lower East Side co-op was a veritable shrine to mid-century modern design. I loved living with the clean, spare lines of his aesthetic. But since moving in here and looking around, I've learned that that stuff is not cheap, and until I start banking some paychecks, I really can't be spending my non-existent discretionary funds on furniture. Even the good-looking IKEA stuff costs several clams! So my enthusiasm for the modern mandate--at least for now--is waning. Or on hold. I still want a cream-colored shag rug, though!

But, speaking of clams, while trolling my favorite used furniture shop here in Portland (the one nearest me, whose name I don't even know) I came across this wonderfully weird lobster pot-cum-coffee table. Actually, I saw this at Tiny Tim's moving company, next to the used furniture store. I think the moving company collects stuff that people either don't want or leave behind. There's all kinds of furniture interspersed around what looks kind of like a Brooklyn real estate broker's office. A TV blares off to the side while a small Asian woman, who might actually be Tiny Tim, answers phone inquiries about moving jobs. It's a weird place, and it carries a lot of funky weird things. I know it is incredibly kitschy to move to Maine and use a lobster pot as the central focus point of the living room, but....for $40....I just kind of loved it! Have I totally lost it? I had to remove the lobster netting that was nailed inside, in case Thumbelina got caught up in it and got trapped. Then I used some Murphy's Oil Soap to really clean it off. Before and after photos are below. The first two were taken out on my deck; the second two show the final product, inside: