Pull Up a Chair, Make Yourself at Home

I don’t want to give you the impression I’m obsessed with old armchairs. It’s just that when I see one by the side of the road, pleading desperately to be adopted, or find one languishing among the clutter of a second-hand shop, it’s like a seeing an abandoned puppy with big, sad eyes pleading, “Please take me home; we’d be so comfortable together!”

Old furniture, with a checkered past and lots of character, always calls to me. Rich frequently has to drag me away from pieces that wouldn’t fit in our home unless we moved to a larger place. He’s right, of course. But still, the temptation…

​Not all temptation can — or should — be resisted. Take these two mid-century classics.

The Buick (left) and the Chevy are enjoying a comfortable old age on our sunporch.

The Buick (left) came with the apartment I sublet from friends in the mid-eighties. When Rich and I became an item, I felt the Buick needed a partner, too. And I rejoiced when I found the Chevy, in disreputable condition with a $50 price tag, sitting forlornly outside a second-hand furniture shop in the rain.

“Old empty chairs are not empty in reality,” says Turkish author Mehmet Murat ildan, “memories always sit there!” So true! I often wonder who loved these chairs before we took them in and gave them a makeover.

Because they turned up in the Berkeley-Oakland area, I imagine they each began life in upscale digs on the high hills, descended into the shabby comfort of professors’ homes on the lower slopes, and eventually found their way down to student housing and the indignity of garage sales in the flatlands.

No matter. The Buick and Chevy are part of our family now. True, they are way too large for our small cottage, the fabric on their backs is fading, and the seats’ once-firm underpinning gets squishier every year. But life just wouldn’t be the same without them.

Carolyn Flannery, queen of rescued chairs (and founder and CEO of Make It Home)

“It's not just furniture, it’s not just a place to sit,” says Carolyn Flannery, the queen of second-hand furniture in my part of the world. “A sofa is a place to read a child a book. A dining table is a place to gather with family and create memories. A bed gives them a stronger base to sleep well, so they can actually work well. So it's not just furniture, it's dignity and hope.”
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Carolyn knows all about the positive effects of furnishings. In the past five years she’s outfitted 2785 homes for 6779 people in need, thanks to her not-for-profit company, Make It Home.

Carolyn started out at the high end of the industry, selling antiques then doing interior decorating, while raising four kids and providing respite care for foster children needing a safe place to stay for a short while.

“I found out that foster kids didn't get anything when they aged out at 18,” she told me. “California's now providing some [support] services up to 24 . But still. An 18-year-old doesn't know much. Think about it. So I'm 18 years old, somebody has just luckily given me a Section Eight voucher for housing, but now I've got to set up all my bills. I've got to cook for myself, I've got to clean, I've got to manage rent and all the expenses that go along with being an adult.”

She paused and added, “It’s a very hard struggle. Quite honestly, they might think being homeless is easier.” Which is why 25% of kids aging out of foster care wind up living on the street.
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A homeless teen on the street in Saratoga County, NY. Photo: DoSomething

In 2020, when Carolyn was ready for a career change, she decided to bring her various vocations together into Make It Home. She raised money through private donations and grants, and got 1200 square feet of donated space in San Francisco. Furniture came pouring in from people isolated at home during the pandemic; it seemed everyone was looking around and thinking, “Why didn’t I get rid of that years ago?”
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Opening day was September 9, 2020 — a day seared into the memory of everyone in the Bay Area, because that was the morning we all woke up to the apocalyptic sight of a flaming red sky filled with drifting ash.

On September 9, 2020, the entire Bay Area looked like this.

​The North Complex wildfire burned 318,935 acres before it was finally contained three months later. When Carolyn announced she was giving free furnishings to wildfire victims as well as foster care kids, she was flooded with requests. And yet more donations.

Since then she’s grown from a one-woman operation to a staff of nine, plus about a dozen regular volunteers in the furniture refurbishing workshop, and dozens more who take on such tasks as assembling kitchen kits from donated housewares and staffing outreach booths at public gatherings.

Her client base is anyone referred by one of the 120 agencies she works with. She serves those who have suffered through domestic violence, natural disasters, PTSD, homelessness; community spaces like rec centers for teens; foster families taking kids; and so many more.

Her collection is now housed in an 11,000-foot donated warehouse in San Rafael, and a new grant made it possible to purchase permanent space which they'll move to in the very near future.

For Carolyn, keeping useful furniture in circulation is something of a crusade. Her efforts have resulted in keeping 3063 tons of garbage out of the landfill. OK, I admit, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the global total of 2.12 billion tons of landfill waste generated each year, but you have to start somewhere.

“Just because you decided you don't want it anymore, it's still your responsibility to get it into the hands of someone else who can use it,” she says. “And if you set it out on your driveway, if it gets picked up and taken by somebody, that's fantastic. But if you put it out there and it gets rained on? It gets wrecked, and it sits there for forever.”

You can imagine how upsetting that was to me, with my deep affection for the upholstered community. How could we treat our overstuffed friends so callously, when there are so many people waiting to love them? For those beyond the geographic reach of Make It Home, there are plenty of options, including Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, and countless local charities, to say nothing of flea markets and garages sales.

When you give furniture its freedom, there's no telling what adventures will ensue. Imagine the surprise of this ordinary, domestic armchair when it found itself being transformed into Art.

“Make It Home has taken over my life completely,” Carolyn told me. “I work 80 to 100 hours a week. Within my marriage, we have agreed that this is a 10 year window, so I've got four years left, and I’m going to work towards transitioning out of the everyday control of the organization.”

“What will you do then?” I asked, picturing her lolling on a beach in Tahiti drinking rum from a coconut shell.
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“I'll paint furniture,” she said, glancing wistfully at the nearby workshop, where Chris was fiddling with a chair while his three-legged dog Bestie snoozed at his feet. “Spend my days in the workshop.” I’m not sure, but I think the chairs surrounding her were actually smiling. I know I was.

Who says chairs can't smile? Photo: "Turquoise Kiss" pop art chair, by Color Life

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​FINDING HOPE
This story is part of my series of blog posts exploring ways we help each other find hope in this worrying world. Know someone you think should be featured? Tell me more in the comments section below.
See all the posts in this series.
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