On Sunday, which was our little girl’s birthday, we headed to the town-next-door to buy some dog treats at a specialty pet store, which happens to be in the same complex as our local antique center. This antique barn/market is the one I go to most often, simply because it’s so close to our home. After a week of day trips to towns across the Hudson River in search of some chairs for our kitchen table, wouldn’t you know it? We found two of them just down the road from our cottage.
I spied this one first.
I fell in love. It looks like it should be sitting in a Swiss Chalet somewhere in the Alps, along with Heidi and her grandfather. It’s chippy and well-loved-and-used and I knew I wouldn’t see another one like it.
It needs a bit of light sanding and some clear coat. I cleaned it up yesterday (after I took these photos.)
Chippy isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but to us, it’s a sweet brew. There’s a story to these well-worn pieces, isn’t there? Where has this chair been? Who sat on it? Was it part of a set? Was it loved?
Once I get it sanded and have applied a few coats of clear coat, those chips will be protected. In the meantime, it’s too cold outside to be doing that sort of thing, so it will exist as is for a bit.
I’m in love.
So, back to the Antique barn – we took the chair downstairs for them to hold and went back upstairs to look around some more and what did I see?
This chair. With flower stencils. This isn’t a theme we were looking for. It just happened. (And we will probably confine the flowers to these two chairs.) But it seemed quite serendipitous.
Both chairs are well made and very sturdy. I made Don sit in them as the final test. They were also very inexpensive, so if we end up finding others we like better down the road…no big deal.
We like old. We like used. We like formerly loved. We like weathered and chippy and timeless and, heaven knows, we like a good story.
There you have it. Two new additions to the cottage.
By the way, our other chairs, while lovely to look at, were rickety and kept coming apart. We could have had them professionally re-glued but the expense wasn’t worth it to us. They ended up being a big pain in the tush (literally and figuratively.) I still use one of them at the desk, and another is still in use at the table for the time being. Both of them will be replaced at some point. Pretty doesn’t always equal practical.
I’ve entered my cleaning and sorting and purging phase. Yesterday I tackled the little desk near the stairs. More on that tomorrow.
Happy Tuesday.
Claudia, The perfect little loved chairs is what I say. I saw the top of the first one before I read the lead in and I was thinking Heidi also. :):) Too sweet. I like the, ” Don , you sit down on them ” test. LOL. You are so funny. Blessings to you, xoxo,Susie
The best test for a wooden chair, Susie!
Those are nice chairs, Claudia…good bones, as they say. When I was growing up, we used stools at the kitchen table. Dad would paint them every few years….I remember about three different colors (not all at once). I thought my younger brother was the luckiest, because he got to sit on the bench, against the wall. My other brother and I had to learn to sit straight on the stool without back support.
Which can only be done when you’re young, Wendy! I couldn’t pull of stool sitting for any length of time today!
Wow, great find and just down the road! They are just perfect. Just love old chairs. If chairs could only talk. I have one from my grandmother that has the cane seating and carved wood. Its very old. When my parents were alive and retired to South Carolina, there was an antique barn down the road from them. Oh my gosh there were so many treasures in it. I could have spent all day in there looking at things! So glad Scout had a wonderful birthday. Stay warm. Is it snowing up your way yet? Snowing here in Maryland and very cold in the 20’s brrrrrrrr!
Hugs
Snowing a little bit at the moment, Nancy. Oh my goodness is it cold!
I quite enjoyed the Heidi reference and still have my battered childhood copy of the book. Is that the wind through the fir trees and the bleating of goats I hear?
Enjoy your new-to-you chairs.
Karen
Oh, Heidi! What a wonderful story. I think I’m going to have to read it again, Karen!
I love the chairs. They are perfect for your cottage!
Thank you, Kathy!
Perfect that it was serendipitous….. love love that concept! They are charming. And, Heidi was the first thing I thought of when I saw the picture.
Stay warm!!
Dangerous wind chill predicted for tonight, Chris. I know you understand that sort of thing!
Great finds–they have so much character and a story to tell
Thank you, Betty!
Love both chairs! Chippy is so perfect to me, has so much character. I found my chairs at a thrift shop and they go so well with a table I inherited. They need some gluing but I think they are worth the work. I could never have found new chairs that I love as much for sure.
hugs,
Linda
Vintage almost always trumps new, Linda!
Love them both! I love mismatched chairs. Wish you were closer – I have a storage building full of old chairs that I use when I have a custom order for a painted chairs.
Judy
Oh, boy….I’d go a little crazy there, Judy! I love chairs!
Love the chairs! I didn’t make it here the other day to wish Scout a very happy birthday! Sweet 16 and a Dame! (There will be no living with her now!) ; ) All the best to your little sweetie!
Thanks so much, Melanie!
Great find!
Thanks, Sandy!
Great finds and just down the road…isn’t that the way of it! I have one ‘old chippy chair’ that was my grandmothers…it’s a treasure. No one sits on it except Sarah Jane…my childhood doll. Your photos are wonderful…the light just right for vintage chairs. Enjoyed this post.
Sue at CollectInTexas Gal
Oh, thank you, Sue! It was definitely a good time to take pictures.
Oh yay!
What a lovely site to see!! These are two wonderful chairs. You’ve done well! Isn’t that about how it goes— 2 chairs almost under your nose? Well, at least in your neighborhood.
Truly in our neighborhood, Pat!
LOVE that first chair! Great finds, both.
Thank you so much, Karen!
The two chairs suit you and your cottage beautifully!
When I moved last year, I took it as the occasion to finally get some furniture repaired/refinished. Instead of having the movers load the furniture onto the truck, I instead called the furniture repair guy to come get them in his van. He repaired a child’s cedar chest from 1905 that was my aunt’s; an inlaid, intricately-cut sofa/hall table that was my grandma’s, dating from the 1920s; four chairs from another aunt’s Country French dining set which she bought in the 1940s or 1950s. Over time, because we recycle furniture in our family(!), all of this was furniture was getting trashed with too many moves/relocations and just plain use by more than one generation.
It cost me a small fortune but I am in love with these treasures all over again and it especially was good to know that the furniture restorer (a quiet man who reserves his words) waxed nostalgic over their fine construction/vintage, not to mention the excellent woods. (Things were just made so well, back in the day! It wasn’t that my family was rich and could afford luxurious items!) Everything else my husband and I own is crap, except for a pull-down-top desk from another aunt dating to the 1930s which my husband fetched for me from thousands of miles away, then beautifully refinished about 25 years ago (after I’d carved doodles into it as a kid which just defies explanation to me as we were taught to be so careful about furniture in my first family).
This 2014 furniture-restoration was a OTO expense for me on those pieces (do it now or never…and it better last!) but, gosh, am I glad I did it. One of the chairs which was a stand-alone piece was my childhood desk chair; nobody knew how old it was but, again, it came from an aunt. It probably had 20 layers of paint on it, painted every color of the rainbow; he stripped it to the bare wood. I was staggered with its beauty. The chair back has a musical treble clef as an openwork design and the restorer thought it was a very unusual piece; for me, it’s just my little chair. I’m really looking forward to putting everything in a good arrangement once we ever get settled and finished with home remodeling. The main thing is that the furniture evokes good memories for me because it’s the furniture of my whole life. The child’s chest rolls on wooden wheels and has a skeleton key; the red cedar is still very fragrant. It was my aunt’s when she was a little girl. It just means the world to me. It got dropped, the wood was dry (glues were very organic back in the day, too) but, somehow, that genius repair guy put it all back together again…seamlessly. Claudia, you will save a lot of money getting your darling chairs in the shape you desire…by DIY.
Still to go for me if I can somehow come up with the money…a piano to be restored: I rescued my grandma’s small upright, given to her by my great-grandfather in 1910 when she was a young girl, from the basement of a building it had been in for over 40 years (I had to buy it back but at least I knew where it had been put after Mom donated it in the early 1960s; it was a long saga over a dozen years of my efforts to get this piano once I had a place to put it…and the basement had changed, with the carriage door being turned into a window, so getting the piano out had been considered impossible, but I knew the building had been sold, so imagine my panic when I heard the new owner was going to take an ax to the piano). Also, my aunt’s pump organ from Germany, dating to the mid-1800s, which I would pump away on when a kid and play to my heart’s content; its bellows are now shot and its tapestry in threads, worn out by time and too many rough shoes, but at least it’s in my living room whereas the piano has gone from basement to garage (of course this is the worst scenario for a piano although I can plunk away at its ivory keys and it still sounds glorious to me…when I was a kid, I’d spin around on its round-seated stool, which had crystal-decorative knobs, and three generations of women learned to play on this piano including me; stool wasn’t there when I finally retrieved the piano, much to my despair…I don’t know what was on Mom’s mind when she gave away this piano except that she was beside herself with grief over losing her mother and just made some unfortunate decisions).
As of this past 4th of July, I have now owned my car for 40 years. My first car; got it when I was a teenager and paid for it all by myself. I guess you could say I hold onto material objects. Which is why my house is bursting at the seams and why 2015 continues to be a major purge year for me!
My mom almost gave away my piano. I was so angry with her at the time! It was my grandmother’s – a beautiful Chickering with ivory keys. So beautiful and the sound so lovely that our tuner kept offering to buy it from us. My mom took lessons on it. My grandmother had it sent to our house so I could take lessons. My brother, sisters, aunts and uncles played it. It’s priceless to me.
So I was living in Philadelphia in a 4th floor studio apartment, just after grad school, and I had no money and my mom informed me that she and dad were retiring to northern Michigan and if I wanted the piano I’d better take it. Well, I had no money and no room for it and I was desperate to save it. Mom and I argued and she would not give an inch. Maybe because it was my grandmother’s and they had a rocky relationship? Who knows?
Thank goodness, my aunt (on my father’s side) stepped in and said she would hang on to it for me. She played by ear and had a grand time playing it until I could finally afford to have it moved out to San Diego.
What a wonderful, happy story! My grandma played by ear, too; only the ‘black’ keys. I don’t know how my great-grandfather could afford the piano…but no lessons! Grandma made sure Mom had lessons, just like Mom made sure I had lessons (although I have no truly good ability at playing like the two of them)…Grandma took in people’s laundry in the early 1930s to pay for the piano lessons; would hang damp laundry all over the house to dry in winter and then iron all of it; the house became so humid that it peeled off the wallpaper!…but Mom only got those lessons for six months before Grandma had to get another paying job outside the home to help ends meet in The Great Depression. What my mom pulled off in those six months was incredible, though; she had a natural talent and could play anything; read sheet music very well. Accompanied by her best childhood friend, who was a violinist, the two girls would put on small recitals at little parties or church gatherings. Somewhere in her house, which I’m still going thru, as I also try to live in it with my own things, are audio tapes from the 1970s where we recorded her playing the piano. I so hope they’ll be playable/listenable when I ever stumble across them. Although it will make me cry.
I love that you have your piano! I can truly relate! I know that part of the reason Mom didn’t keep Grandma’s piano was because, at the time of Grandma’s death, Mom already had her own piano…but, frankly, it never had good sound like Grandma’s Ludwig & Co. upright. When Mom died last year, I gave her piano to a second cousin of mine. Otherwise, I think I was probably going to have trouble finding a buyer or maybe even a ‘free to a good home.’ In this day and age, a piano store…of which there are so few left, and this was a Mom & Pop operation, not a chain…told me that there is no market any longer for a console piano. Can’t give them away…which I think is a tragedy. A few years ago, I actually saw a decent upright sitting on a sidewalk as freecycle, and it sat there for days; I was praying it wouldn’t rain. They’re no longer looked at as a cherished musical instrument which is also distinctive as ‘furniture’ (a showpiece for a home in the ‘olden days’); also, too heavy to move from place to place in the transient society we’ve become. Apparently people want the space-saving, fold-up, portable keyboards. Or whatever is going on in music with the digitalized, computer-oriented world. Sigh.
I know that piano stores are really having a hard time surviving and that makes me so sad. A computerized keyboard is NO substitute for the live, gorgeous music that comes from a piano. Very sad indeed.
Claudia, despite your kindnesses, I have decided to discipline myself…maybe that’s not the word…from your blog for a week or so or longer until I can train myself to leave shorter comments to your posts. I keep saying I’ll reduce my responses, and then it’s like I can’t help myself, and I apologize to your reader audience as well as you. I became addicted to your blog again very quickly, just like last year. Hopefully I’ll come back a third try with appropriately-edited responses but I did want to tell you, upon temporarily ‘leaving,’ something really remarkable which has happened to me and that is about the dollhouse subject. In reading about your dollhouse, I started doing some research and looking into some initial buying of contents-before-house-purchase which is probably not the way to go but, anyway, looking at photos and images has prompted a memory in me which has resurfaced, although I don’t have Mom here to substantiate it…I have remembered I DID have a doll house when I was a really little girl. It’s all come back to me. I must have been maybe age 3 or 4–I’d graduated to Barbies by the age of 7 or 8, and my Barbie Dream House took precedence–but the metal doll house was on a chair or my small childhood desk, which I still have…another, smaller childhood desk, meant for a little-little kid…and which was set up on the wall-to-wall carpet in the living room. From looking on the web, I recognize it as the two-story/split-level Marx one; there were two styles in the 50s. They made jillions of them, affordable for ‘regular’ moms and dads, from the dime store or Sears or Montgomery Ward.
I can’t quite remember the plastic people or plastic furniture (but I recognized the illustrations on the tin…of walls, floors, siding)…until, that is, I saw one of the plastic babies on eBay for sale and, get this, Mom has the exact plastic baby (said on eBay to be early 1950s, which is about right) in a shadowbox she made up, some decades after I was grown and had left the family home, and the baby sure wasn’t from HER childhood so it must have been left over from mine?! ! Why had I never asked her about that baby, or a doll house? It’s possible the doll house was a hand-me-down from my cousins, but they’re not around any longer to ask either; everybody has died. This has been a mega reveal for me…this metal doll house!…and I’m trying to make myself remember more and more. The pictures on the web are a big help. I don’t want to particularly buy an old Marx metal doll house out of sentimentality but I’m so thankful for this new memory from over 50 years ago…and I have you to thank for that! It’s just been so fun! Bye for now and I hope January continues to be a really nice month for you guys! Love to Scout, too.
My dear Vicki,
You don’t have to ‘discipline’ yourself! This comment section is all about conversation and I don’t mind the length of the comments. In fact, I like the fact that whatever I have written that day sparks something in you that makes you want to respond.
Go for it!
xoxo
You are the sweetest, but I need to rein it in! Middle path! Always a challenge for a person prone to excess.
Beautiful additions Claudia — love your new chairs…chips and all. Must be the season (new year, etc.) as I am in the purging phase as well. My Dad passed away in Oct 2013 and, being the closest child geographically, all his files, etc. ended up at my house. I went through a lot of it back in 2013 and early 2014 and then just was unable emotionally to do more. Now I am back at it and only have a couple of boxes to go. Yay!! Once I’m done that, I will really be able to tackle my office/piano/sewing room.
Purging is a great feeling. The big bugaboos are my ‘closet’ which is full of all sorts of yarn and fabric and dollhouse stuff – so full that I can’t find anything.
I’ve given up on our closet, which is small and shared by us. It’s sort of a mess and will probably stay that way!
Oh how I love old chairs…I’ve always been drawn to them. The two you picked are just lovely! No new chair could ever live up to those beauties.
If I had the room, I’d have lots of chairs in this cottage!
Beautiful additions to your cottage Claudia. I want to go to some of our local antique stores too but life has been too busy lately. Maybe soon. You certainly found some treasures and close to home too!
Blessings,
Betsy
Close to home is awfully nice, Betsy!
Those are the perfect chairs for your cottage…they’ve been well loved! Love the green color on the first chair…are you going to clear coat the second one as well? We just got back from the airport…I miss the kids already. But, it was a nice long visit…hopefully they will be back soon! Now it’s onto purging myself…tomorrow though….I need a nap! ;)
I may clear coat it, but no hurry on that one. The green one needs it ASAP!
Rest up, Donnamae!
Great find! We repaired two of our dining room chairs… two months and they are still holding up. Stay warm, here in Fort Worth it’s cold, cold, and getting colder.
The wind chill here today is well below zero, Joy! Brrrr!
Claudia,
I love the chairs and chippy furniture just spells home to me. I like finding furniture pieces that are already time worn and chipped as opposed to doing it myself although I have had to do that to some chairs I found by the roadside! What excellent finds!
Thank you, Deanna!
What perfect finds for your sweet little kitchen Claudia..I didn’t think of Heidi but I did think Swiss when I saw the first one..love them both..Please tell Scout I am so sorry I missed her birthday..she is such a special girl..
I’ll send along your birthday wishes, Nancy!
Love the chairs! Happy additions to the cottage.
Yes, they are, Cindy. Thank you!
Love them both but the green is the perfect color for your cottage. I can normally find chairs for about $5 around here and they’re made from real wood. You couldn’t purchase a stick of lumber for that price. You could use a coat of clear wax to protect them too, at least that could be done inside this winter. I did that to my bar stools and I like it over the clear coat….just a thought. Well done on your finds.
OH wow, you found the chairs! I just love them, chippy & all! Very pretty! I haven’t been by in few days so catching up,.. Your post on your little cottage was very sweet as well as birthdays of Your girl!
Thank you, Mary!
I love both your new chairs but the first one is really lovely and definitely belonged to Heidi before you got it.
Thanks, Gillian!