Standing The Test Of Time

If time has to march on, then at least give us something nice to look at while we watch!!! How can you resist these cute faces? From elegant to funky (dig that pink triangle!), these clocks are popping up all over the shop. Which means it's time for us to mention this: April 2010 ticks off the sixth anniversary of Room With A Past! That's right! It's been six years full of timeless treasures and one-of-a-kind finds for you, and a huge group of loyal (not to mention really, really FUN) customers for us! Please give yourselves a hand as we head into another year of even more good times!

Did We Mention We Got A Mention?

If you haven't seen the April 2010 edition of Today's Vintage Magazine, we hope you pick one up soon! It's always chock-full of interesting information on home decorating shops, decorating with vintage items, and antique show/flea market schedules.

Room With A Past is honored to be featured in it this month, in an article highlighting the happenings in Walnut Creek, CA!

It's a great time for this article to appear, as we are opening this week, April 15, 16, 17 &18th, for our sale! Sign up for our monthly email announcement HERE and you'll always be reminded of our once-a-month dates!

Over-all Over-haul!

Remember this room at our new Paris Flea Market located in Livermore? It's been given a "make-over" if you will:

And this hallway--it's been given an "over-hall"!!!

And we still have a basket full

of plans, ideas and color yet to come!


How funny that we found the color theme we chose months ago

featured in the April 2010 issue of Traditional Home Magazine!

Hot punchy pink,


citrus-y chartrese greens accented with black!

Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to our May 2010 opening!

It's Just Like Riding A Bike!

There are some things you will never forget, and having FUN should be one of them! We had an impromptu Parking Lot Sale during our last opening at the shop to promote more FUN than one person should be allowed to have!

Luckily, there are now 31 of us in-house ROOMIES, so the FUN was spread amongst us all!

And with 31 of us, we had a parking lot FULL of bargains:

(Can you imagine what the insides of our garages look like?!?!?)

We hope you came, shopped and conquered, but if you missed all the FUN, you'll be happy to know we have another Parking Lot Sale planned for our June opening on the 24, 25, 26 & 27th. Sign up now to receive an email reminder!

Roomies ~ Caught With Our Bloomers Down!

As ROOMIES, we love a good time just as much as the next gal, but getting caught with your bloomers down isn't as scandalous as one might think! Sure, It can be dirty, but not THAT kind of dirty. Today we're giving you a little "Hey, I'm not ready for my close-up Mr. DeVille!" peek at what it DOES mean.

ROOMIES love vintage furniture, and the accessories that are the sugar to our "eye-candy". We love beautiful fabrics, old books with foxing, and art that depicts simpler times. We love things that sparkle, unexpected colors popping off each other, as well as hues that are soft & soothing. But most of all we love it when it when our plan comes together!

Being a ROOMIE not only means "taking stock" of what you've got, it also means cleaning stock, arranging stock and bringing in "new" stock every month.


It means arriving to the shop with a truckload of things (usually on your day off from your "real" job) that you've handpicked from all the estate sales & flea markets that had you traveling all over the county!


It means you climb ladders, step on stools, get down on your hands & knees and appreciate the help and support from anyone who'll give it to you, just so you can realize the dream of working in a store you love!


It means you move furniture that is three times as big as you are (by yourself usually!) until it "moves" you.



It means you "listen" to a piece and paint it the exact color it's whispering to be painted.


It means you take a moment to collect your thoughts and imagine a hundred times where a hundred things would look best. It means being the muscle, having the vision and putting your heart into every hard-working minute of it.



It means taking a pile of wonderful things you have a connection with,


and making it look like someone else could walk right in, sit down...



and live there!

Now that you've seen the "before", we hope you'll come see what we've "done with the place" this month. Our sale starts this Thursday, March 18th and continues through Sunday, March 21st. Sign up on our email list and we'll be happy to send you a reminder every month!

Paris Flea Market ~ Lueur!

Remember this plywood floor and exposed drywall? It's begun its transformation!

The walls are primed and the floors are ready for a (surprise) fun treatment upstairs!


The walls downstairs are starting to glow...

Here's that wide hallway we were talking about in the previous post:


Things are looking good in the powder room too!

And the stark wall behind this vanity is no longer.....!

Oops, you got a little paint on your nose there!

We've been working hard and having fun at our new Paris Flea Market (Livermore, CA) location, but now it's time to scrub our hands clean and get ready for our Room With A Past (Walnut Creek, CA) March opening which starts next Thursday, March 18th. Hope to see you soon!

What's Black & White & Pink All Over?!?!?

It's all of us ROOMIES! You'll notice we've all got a little "pink in our cheeks" these days because we have some exciting news to share with all of our fellow ROOMIES out there in blog-land who love Room With A Past so much!

First of all, The polls are open and you can go to the Diablo Magazine website to vote for your favorite stores, services and restaurants in the East Bay! You might win a trip for two to Maui just for casting your vote, too! Polls close on March 31, 2010.

Second of all, starting in May 2010, we'll be opening a "sister" location!!! Can you stand to see more of the great vintage items we always have?

Here's a sneak peak at what you'll see when you come to our Paris Flea Market location in Livermore just off Highway 580.

The front entry with a room full of goodies to the left and the wide hallway on the right which leads down to two more rooms...

then through this door (looking back into where you just came from) to another nook of a room and a grand plaza-to-be, full of more treasures and the garden area. Hey, what's that up top you say?

Let's go see, shall we? After you!

Look--it's a ballroom! Not really, but it IS the area we've been doing the HAPPY DANCE because we're just so excited to be here and share the beginning of a new dream with you!

Here's the balcony with...

a view of the garden area below!

And we've saved one of our favorite features for last:

a huge roll-up door! Just pull around back and we'll load it for you!

We hope you liked this little tour. We still have so much to do with all the possibilities that are ahead of us. We do have one dilemma, however: if a fan of Room With A Past is called a ROOMIE, what will a fan of Paris Flea Market be called? A FLEA? A MARKETEER? Whatever you call one, you can be sure when they respond, they will be black & white and PINK all over!