Jubilee Furniture: Help Spread The Word

Quiet, sleepy, Carol Stream Illinois (a suburb of Chicago) is home to an amazing vintage, mid-century modern, retro and gently used furniture market so secret, that, well, I finally decided to put my greed aside to help them get the word out. For months now on Saturday's only, Jubilee Furniture Company has opened it's doors at 9 am – the exact time I show up. For months I've had practically unfettered access to all this incredible and ever changing furniture and collectibles. A smorgasbord of vintage and retro items that sell for at or below garage sale prices. I kid you not, I've found Vitra, Steelcase, Herman Miller, Weiland, Knoll, Kimball, d_SCAN, Haworth, AllSteel and a ton of older American and Danish lines there. I blogged about my Steelcase Warren Snodgrass 474419W Encore Series guest chairs that are in the Museum of Modern art a few weeks ago. Each Saturday a new selection awaits at Jubilee.

You see, during the week, Jubilee accepts furniture donations, as the whole concept is to assist individuals and families in need throughout the suburbs through this ministry called Community Outreach. All proceeds from the Jubilee Furniture mart go to this worthwhile cause.

So why do I ask you to help me get the word out when I could continue my cherry picking under the radar, so-to-speak?

Well, each week I've noticed they've not had adequate resources and people to get the word out as they would like. Consequently, the place does an "okay" business, while the vintage gems go largely unnoticed (except for by me of course). Since the market is a ministry, I feel a call to help them. Especially as you consider they are a bunch of spirited, friendly, energetic and hardworking folk, and I know that they would oh-so-appreciate your help in spreading the word.

I spent 45 minutes there recently and took all the photos you see at the beginning of this post with my Canon Rebel 300D.

The yellow, low flourescent lighting at Jubilee is practically non-existent, but this dark, dusty, huge warehouse is what I find so charming. It's not polished; it's not pretty—a distinctive that may in fact be it's charm. While it provides really affordable furniture to a community in need, it's also a diamond in the rough for collectors and dealers.

Let me know what you think about my photos, and if you have any questions just ask. I've volunteered there a couple Saturdays in the past and am tight with the two full time staff members, Dave and Susan. They're located on the corner of North Avenue (64) and Schmale in Carol Stream. Jubilee can be reached at 1-(630)-337-1467. Susan just told me that they are now opening on Fridays, too, from 3pm - 8pm. And always Saturday 9am – 4pm.

I appreciate your help spreading the word. Tell them BarryBlog sent ya'.

The Hunt: Eco-Friendly and Vintage Furniture

Apartment Therapy recently featured a great post on eco-friendly furniture. Now Sarah follows up, listing all the environmentally conscious wood furniture that's been featured on AT in the past. What a great resource. She lists sustainably harvested, recycled, and second-hand wood in her line up, and in so doing, highlights Jubilee Furniture as a place to find "second hand solid wood."

For me, "vintage used" Mid-Century Modern (and older) has always been a favorite choice for hunting, researching, collecting and usually just admiring. There's something about "the hunt" for this stuff that makes it rewarding and worth repeating. The late thought leader Rob Roy Kelly does a nice job of shedding light on collecting, as he describes in detail what it means to him. For non-hunters and non-collectors, this article might explain where your collector friends are coming from.

I appreciate Sarah's article. It reminds me of how cool it is to reuse stuff. Especially when doing so achieves refreshing, unintended and inspired results. And for me, like Rob Roy Kelly, finding and researching these articles is often more enjoyable than buying. Many times I just take a picture so I can research it later without having to buy. That's fun too.

As background for those of you who have not heard of Jubilee Furniture in Carol Stream, the word got out several weeks ago through the generous help of a few bloggers I contacted for help, and by the images I took of the items there. I hoped my blog friends and contacts would share the news about Jubilee, and boy did they. Apartment Therapy, Nicole at Making it Lovely, Jess at Howaboutorange, ToKissTheCook, and others– they all got the ball rolling big time. Since then many have ventured out to Carol Stream for themselves, and some continue to blog about their experiences. I even saw some recent chatter on Domino Magazine's website. Some found deal of a lifetime, while others came up empty. And some really gave Jubilee high praise calling it "This trip may have been our best thrift store experience ever." I'm continually surprised every week by what's been donated from the week before. I have begun to see some of the same new faces there every weekend, which is cool.

Now that Jubilee is on the map so to speak, they have a need for more furniture donations. There's something satisfying about reusing and helping the environment, and an even better feeling knowing donation of furniture to Jubilee will help people who are shy on cash for whatever reason, and by knowing their profits go to the greater good. So if you or anyone you know is looking to donate something, call Jubilee and see if they can help. Dave and Susan can be contacted at 630.337.1467.

Jubilee Furniture - What Caught My Eye

Photography is a hobby, and today I had a chance to shoot a few pieces of Jubilee Furniture's current inventory that caught my eye. If you haven't been there recently, you should. Susan, Dave, Connie and all the other great people at Jubilee put in a lot of work to keep the donations streaming through, and a few new business relationships with impressive local big name companies have made the prospect of getting interesting new donations a reality. Judging by today's inventory, I am personally excited by how this may make things really interesting. For those who trust my eye and thrifting skills, understand that Jubilee just got even more interesting. As these partners deliver new furniture all across Chicagoland, the old stuff they remove (sometimes in like new condition) will end up at Jubilee.

I didn't take a ton of photos, but check out the stuff that caught my eye.

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French Provencal Louis XV Lovliness

December 09 UPDATE: After discussing this furniture with Christie's, Wright20, and several other auction houses and furniture dealers, though you can't fault me for trying and spending significant time doing so, you can begin laughing at me. This stuff is of value, but not as valuable as I had thought. The exception being the bedroom stuff, which has generated a great deal of collector and auction house interest. So head into Jubilee this weekend and some of it will be priced.

Jubilee Furniture just got a donation beyond anything they've ever seen. I'm a mid century modern furniture and decorative arts collector, and although French Provencal Louis XV style furniture is like a foreign language to me, it does not take a genius to understand how special this donation really is.

So I spent several hours taking photos (as I have done several times in the past) of this amazing furniture on Saturday afternoon. Love taking photos, I love everyone at Jubilee, and I love furniture (especially Time Life Chairs by Charles Eames for Herman Miller), so this was a great day.

I am currently in the process of communicating with a few choice auction houses for their assistance. If you can help me identify these pieces, I and Jubilee would really appreciate it.

While I was at Jubilee I shot several more pieces from their very stocked showroom. Below are both galleries.

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Mid-Century Jubilee Furniture - Coming Soon

I just completed a new set of images to help my friends at Jubilee Furniture in Carol Stream IL document a bunch of new furniture donations they called me about. You may have heard of them before. These cool new vintage furniture pieces may be available via Apartment Therapy Chicago's classified ads, or via Craigslist, or at the Carol Stream store...I'm not quite sure yet. Suffice it to say there is some SWEET mid-century modern furniture goodness to be had, when they are ready to go. They are still pricing these items. Stay tuned.

West Chicagoland Thrift / Resale Driving Map

Thrift stores and resale shops are plentiful in the West Chicagoland area. Those who follow BarryBlog know of my thrift scores. And it's almost every day I'm asked where to find these stores. So, below is a list of some of my favorites, with comments about the experience each store offers from my perspective. I will add more stops as I learn of them. If you know of other stores in this general vicinity, leave a comment on this post with the name and address and I'll be happy to add it here. Just bookmark this page, and/or subscribe to the map via RSS and you'll be notified in your reader if anything's added. It's my hope that you'll enjoy and get good use out of this map. I highly recommend that you go to a larger view of the map from Google's page by clicking this link, or the link right below the map which says "view larger map."

If you appreciate this map, and you're feeling charitable, feel free to leave me a tip.

UPDATE: Scott from the awesome journal ars longa has also shared stops for Decatur, Springfield, and Indianapolis IN to the comments section below this post.

Update to my update: I forgot to mention my friends at Jubilee Furniture (Hi Dave and Susan!).


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