Social media madness!

We all know Ethel is a modern gal, but she's a busy one too, and sometimes it's hard for her to keep up with EVERY social media platform. She does have to take a break every now and then!
We'll always try to make sure we're reaching everyone, but sometimes it gets tricky to remember what we've posted where.
So if you don't see new items here on the blog, remember to check our Shopcaster page, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
Ethel on Shopcaster
Ethel on Facebook
@EtheStore on Twitter
And don't forget to drop us a line every now and then. We love hearing from our customers and are always looking for feedback, new product ideas, your furniture wishlist (oh, wouldn't we all love a hot pink womb chair or set of 6 Herman Miller shell chairs in bright orange)or just what you love or don't love about Ethel. We happen to think she's perfect, but there's always room for improvement!
See you at the store!

New Atomic Ranch is here!

We just got in the Fall 2012 issue of Atomic Ranch, and as usual, it's chock full of mid-century fabulousness.
This issue features stories on houses in Sacramento, Dallas and Las Vegas, as well as an in depth profile of furniture designer Paul McCobb.
We also have three Summer 2012 issues of Atomic Ranch left, as well as a few Summer 2012 issues of Modernism.
See you at the store!

These are the people in your neighborhood....

We can’t believe that September is less than a week away! It feels like we JUST moved to our new location and here we are, over three months in our new home here in Corktown.

It’s been a busy three months too. Aside from the store renovations, we’ve been getting to know our new Corktown neighbors and introducing the neighborhood to Ethel.  We’re meeting lots of new customers that are so happy we made the move closer to downtown and a lot of our customers from Leslieville have dropped in to say “hi” and to tell us how much we’re missed in the old ‘hood.

We’ve seen a few new funky indie boutiques open up around us, like Even & Odd and Far Away Eyes. 

Even & Odd, at 356 Queen St. East (right next door to RedLine Coffee), carries a wide range of products, including decorative pillows, French made glassware, natural wood trim mirrors, custom salvage wood furniture, and carefully selected vintage pieces. Their overall aesthetic has a great rustic, industrial chic vibe which we think would appeal to the shabby chic set. You can check out their website here. http://evenandodd.ca/site/

Far Away Eyes, at 295 Queen St. East (right next door to Ontario Paint & Wallpaper), is a elegant little shop just opened by Katelyn Joliat, a local jewellery designer. Her shop features her line of jewellery, K8, as well as a carefully curated collection of tees by Adieu and No Lost Witches, as well as jeans by Courtshop. Along with these clothing lines, she also has vegan friendly candles by Modern Alchemy and all natural lotions by Toronto’s own Ella’s Botanicals. Far Away Eyes is a softer version of steampunk and we’re thinking we may just have to indulge in one of Katelyn’s bow shaped pendants from her K8 collection. Check out their website here. http://www.shopfarawayeyes.com/

Here at Ethel, we’ve also seen lots of furniture come and go, and we still have a few store projects to finish, like our custom light raft which we’ll use to suspend vintage lighting from. We also want to build a half wall in the back to allow us to have a more private work space when we’re working on client projects and even just to hide some of our messier furniture clean-up projects if we don’t have time to finish them.

We’re also thinking about the upcoming few months too, as we’re focussing on bringing in some new product lines that we think our customers will like. We have a collection of tiki mugs from TikiFarm coming in this week and we’re looking at at some tooled leather goods made by a local designer that we think our rockabilly customers will love. 

We’re also thinking of architecture and design related things, like vintage building toys, modern viewmasters and design books for kids.

Ethel will always be about vintage modern design but we don’t want to limit ourselves just to Danish Teak and Herman Miller shell chairs. Since there are so many talented people designing great stuff today, we'd be silly to stick our head in the sand! Over the next few months, we’ll be working on growing our business and hopefully our customer base too.

We hope you’ll agree that a little 21^st century product in the store will be like a splash of soda in a glass of old scotch, or a vintage bangle bracelet with that brand new little black dress.

See you at the store!

Beautiful and sobering....

We recently acquired a set of 4 framed photographs for the store, and while the majority of the vintage art we sell usually borders on the kitschy, these are serious, beautiful and a little bit sobering.

These photographs are numbered silver gelatin prints and are part of a series of portraits done by Steve Morrison in San Francisco in the mid-1980’s. This series documents the beginning of the HIV epidemic and is inspired by 19th century medical photography.

“The past is prologue. And if we forget our past, it will come back to haunt us.”

The photographs are $75 each

How much are those chairs in the window?

We're having an August "dog days of summer" sale here at the store, so we can clear some things out before our fall buying trips.

You all know this purple beauty! It's been our Christmas window star and a favourite of many of our customers. Well, we're ready to let it go to a good home.

Originally priced at $2400, 

this regal throne can be yours for $400!!!
UPDATE: PURPLE THRONE CHAIR HAS SOLD!!!

We get so many comments on how comfortable this reupholstered vintage lounge chair is. Now you can experience that on a daily basis!

Originally priced at $795, take this baby home for $350!!!
UPDATE: LOUNGE CHAIR HAS SOLD!!!

Everyone thinks teak = mid century, but there was a lot of good design in walnut too.
Take this mid-fifties walnut sideboard & hutch. We love the Jetsons vibe of the pulls and the zoomy angles. The hutch is removable and has fixed shelves behind the centre door. The sideboard has sliding doors that reveal fixed shelves and a cutlery drawer.

This walnut beauty was originally priced at $595 

but can be yours for $350!!!

We've had these two vintage fifties blondewood, blue vinyl upholstered office/school chairs in for a while and now it's time to see them get out the door.

Originally priced at $150 each, 

you can have the pair for $50!!!
UPDATE: OFFICE/SCHOOL CHAIRS HAVE SOLD!!!

No one would ever mistake this 60's plastic shell chair for an Eames original,

but for only $10, who cares!

UPDATE: SHELL CHAIR HAS SOLD!!!

We'll be marking down a few more things this month, so stay tuned. 

See you at the store!

Road Trip!

Ethel is going on a short road trip this week, so the store will be closed Monday July 30th, Tuesday July 31st and back open on Wednesday August 1st.
She'll be online so if you have any questions, send us an email.

See you in August!

Are you an Ethel?

Are you an Ethel?
- Do you love listening to french yeye music, wearing too many bracelets and think the beehive hairdo is due to come back in style any moment now?
- Do you abhor beige in your home decorating choices, and prefer colour over bland?
- Are you a fan of Jonathan Adler and his devotion to Maximalism?
- Would you rather save up your pennies for that perfect Rosenthal teapot instead of getting take-out at Tim Hortons?
- Does the phrase "Crazy Daisy" mean something to you, other than the femme fatale on the Dukes of Hazzard having a bad day?
- Are you more Marimekko than Burberry? Do you prefer Pucci over Prada? Do you dream of wearing Vera Neumann instead of Vera Wang?
- Do you watch old movies for their set design and do you dream of one day owning your own 23 Beekman Place?

If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions....then you may just be an Ethel at heart! Admitting it is the first step, then the next step is coming on down to Ethel - 20th Century Living and celebrating your Ethel-ness....
Remember....Life is too short for Beige!!!
See you at the store!