an old piece of furniture

I love old things. Old farmhouses, old quilts, old pottery, old paintings, and on and on. And I especially have an affinity for old wooden furniture. In fact, it's one of the main reasons I go to thrift stores and antique shops.

Being that our home is only 1600 square feet however, it's not like I have an endless amount of floor space to put all that lovely old furniture I find while thrifting. I do have to be quite choosy, and it often means leaving behind pieces that are very hard to leave behind.

I think that one of the reasons I want an old farmhouse so much is so I would have lots of room to fill it up with old furniture!

When Brad and I built our home, we were a mere twenty-two years old. We had just started out in our careers, and so we built what we could afford. It meant that I scrapped the first two plans I took to our builder because they were out of our budget. I guess that we were both raised with the wisdom of living within our means. Besides, my ultimate goal was to be a stay-at-home mommy once we started having children, and I knew that this wouldn't be possible if we were tied to an outrageous mortgage.

So our house was built nicely, but very simply and economically. And we basically picked the most affordable options when it came to cabinets, counter-top, hardware, lighting, doors, etc. And when it was all done it was a wonderful thing to own our own home, and we had done it in such a way that it wasn't going to overwhelm us every month when the mortgage was due.

Now that we have been in our home over thirteen years, we are beginning to do some updating here and there. Right now it's just small things. We have some other bigger goals in mind that we are striving for financially, so we're dealing with the smaller, more affordable updates currently, but, Lord-willing, will begin some bigger renovations over the next several years. Basically, we want to add the character and charm that we love so much in older homes.

But for now, I like to bring those older, charming pieces into our home by means of furniture pieces. We've bought many older pieces over the past several years. Some I have refinished and some I have left in their original state. And it has happened that these pieces bring me more joy than any new pieces of furniture we own. I think of the homes and the people that owned them before us. I wonder if they had children like we do.

Right before Christmas, I was in a consignment shop that I like to stop into frequently. Brad and I had been talking about replacing the hutch in our dining room with a larger buffet with the hopes of Brad eventually building some old barn-wood shelves to hang above it.

I found a large buffet at the consignment shop, got measurements, called Brad to make sure it would fit in the space we wanted it for, and then ended up buying it because it would fit perfectly. The drawer space is amazing, and I love the little white ceramic knobs and dovetailed drawers. The carpenter that built the piece had also used wooden dowels to hold the piece together rather than nails as you find in most furniture today.

So now that buffet sits in its designated space in the dining area. I changed out all of the hardware except for the ceramic knobs. It holds my extra dishes and has some of my favorite things displayed on top. But I think my most favorite part of this piece has turned out to be all of those little drawers. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with all of those little spaces when I first brought it home, but I've since decided it would make the perfect place for my note cards, stationary, stamps, and other writing supplies. It's become my make-shift lady's desk.

Up until this point, I have always stored my writing supplies in a plastic bin in my closet. I love how everything is so organized and looks pretty (I do appreciate pretty things.) Now I'm just going to purchase some charming stickers and maybe some nice pens to complete the collection. 


P.S. - I am having a 35% off sale in my Etsy shop. Use the code NEWYEAR35 to receive 35% off your total purchase of all of my listed items. The coupon expires this Saturday.