Warsaw....

On the hunt....

For most of you reading this, you know that I definitely love a good bargain!  Paying full retail price just about kills me and I get a deep satisfaction knowing I got a deal on something.  My latest shopping hunt has proven a bit challenging here in Poland. 

I have been on the search for a basic chair for our guest bedroom..nothing fancy - a simple place for guests to throw clothes, make themselves comfortable or to sit and put on their shoes.  Ideally, I wanted to get a vintage or used chair for cheap and have fun "modernizing" it with a bright paint color and a reupholstered seat.  So, I started keeping my eyes open for furniture stores in the area.  Charlie and I started varying our route looking for places...a new side street or secret alley to head down.  We discovered that, Yes, there are a number of furniture stores in Warsaw but you pretty much have two extreme ends of the specturm... Ikea or super expensive, high end stores. 

After our search didn't turn up anything I turned to my "experts".  Who are these experts you ask?  My Polish friends.  These friends are amazing resources, but are also probably so sick and tired of being an "expert", so I try to only use them when I have to.  I knew Warsaw had to have a Goodwill/Salvation Army type of store somewhere in the city. 

I was happy to here that my two experts had the exact same response, but I was not quite happy with their response.  They told me that unfortunately, there are no thrift/used furniture stores in Poland.  That the people in this country use something until it completely wears out.   They do not often replace things like furniture and if they change the style of their house they simply have the furniture refinished to match the new decor.  Poles keep their furniture for decades and many times it gets passed down to the next generation.  A part of me felt naive for simply assuming that people wanted to dispose of their used furniture as we do in the states.   And, the other part of me remembered that there are many more cultural differences than those that meet the eye...this one included.  The more I thought about the Poles and their furniture the more it naturally made sense.  These are people who have lived through a horrible history of war, poverty and destruction of their country - then followed by a number of years under communism.  Living under such a horrible past makes you hold on to your posessions tightly - chairs as well as extra money. 

So, I am going to have to rethink my chair hunt looks like Ikea might be it!  : )