Garbage Buffet

I'm not ashamed of finding things near the dumpster. In apartment living, people often leave things that are perfectly good but no longer needed next to the dumpster, sometimes with a "free" sign but often not.

Well, one good Saturday evening I made one such amazing discovery. As I came around the corner in my car, I spotted a promising piece of furniture next to the dumpster. At first I thought it was just a buffet or dresser, but upon a closer look, I realized it was a buffet with a china cabinet on top, two pieces. 

I parked my car quickly and ran back to the cabinet to get an up close look, and it just kept getting better. First, it was in EXCELLENT condition. Never painted, no flaws/dings/scratches. I can't really imagine why someone would have discarded something in this condition, but who knows. And most importantly, IT'S MID-CENTURY! 

After the fun of bringing it to my apartment and up the stairs--which turn, I put some things in the cabinet. When thinking about how I wanted the cabinet to look, I was really inspired by the china hutch that Nicole at Making it Lovely has in her dinning room. The arrangement is really pleasing to look at, and I already have a collection of similar-colored vases and other pieces, which also happen to be white.

Source

I would love to find some colorful fabric to put on the back in luei of painting (because its in SUCH good condition, I can't imagine painting at this point), but I haven't found anything yet. Because I live in an open floor plan apartment, it feels like the colors in my "living room" should coordinate with the colors in my "dinning room", which leaves colors like light blue, grey, pink and yellow. I just need to find the right fabric and then I will commit. 

Here are some pictures of the whole dinning room area with the cabinet. Sorry about the glare from the mirror!

 There was once a mirror on the wall that now has the cabinet, so I had to move it. I decided to rearrange my plates to go around the mirror, as you can see above. I took out 2 plates--my least favorite ones, which also happen to be the smallest plates. I think I am liking this arrangement better than before. It takes up the whole wall nicely instead of not taking up enough of the wall.

Pre-chandy, Pre- china cabinet dinning room, ugh, and an stray chair

Current dinning room!

The one thing that really bothers me at the moment is that the chandelier is NOT centered. I might need to do something about that in the near future.