It’s Spring! Time for checking curbs for discarded furniture. Anyone who knows me understands my love of old furniture. There is something about discarded furniture that makes me want to rescue it and give it a home. As if nothing can be thrown away.
It started long ago, my first piece that I can recall was an old dresser, A tall boy with scrolling etched into the wood. I always thought the drawers should match up and form some weird flower pattern. I would spend many days staring at the pattern on the front of the dresser trying to decipher what I thought it was and what it should become.
The dresser became part of my oldest daughters bedroom set , a bed and a dresser. Her color of choice was purple and gold. We settled on a purple base and splash painted all over. That was the fun of it, throwing that paint all over it and making it “cool” something out of nothing!
That dresser lived in 3 different houses and the day I put it out front in a yard sale, it was intended to simply be a decoration to lure people in. I could have sold it 10 times that day.
My love of wayward furniture is a little reminiscent of the island of misfit toys from the Christmas Classic. I want them all to have a good home. I even take them back when they have outgrown your house. I will revive them one more time, call me Dr. Frankenfurniture, it’s alive.
I have spent many a Saturday scouring flea markets and thrift stores for the next “find”. I collect pieces like others collect shoes.. oh wait I have a shoe issue too. I seriously do not plan well, like the time I brought home a rocking chair and my youngest daughter had to share her space in the back of my cramped car with a rocking chair for 90 miles of excitement. Thank you Chelsea.
Or the numerous times I have purchased an item and then beg and plead with a friend with a truck to bring it home, or prayed it would somehow fit in my vehicle. I am a wizard at logistics. And yes everything fits in a KIA Soul.
I have painted furniture, stripped furniture, hand painted designs, splash painted, stenciled and distressed my way through life. I currently have a 1940’s bed and dresser that is held together with brackets and screws. It is split, worn, rickety and chewed on by my beloved dog, but I keep repairing it. It is simply like an old friend, one that matches me and my life experiences.
My current projects in waiting are a swing arm vanity for my granddaughter’s new room and a potbelly table that will reside somewhere, not to mention a lovely bed and dresser given to me by another furniture lover. It now has a good home.
My oldest daughter used to cringe at my mismatched furniture, and then one day she proclaimed my room soo friggin cute. And it is apparently the favorite room in the house, my family has always congregated on my bed and still do. My comfortable beaten down furniture feels like home. We drag it around and it tells my story. A much more colorful story than if I bought it new.
It’s my history and hopefully one of my children will inherit my love of furniture and start a home for discarded and forgotten pieces and make them their own. I can get lost in the beauty of the grain, the treasures waiting beneath a coat of thick paint and beauty in creativity.
I recommend looking for the saddest piece you can find and use your creative eyes to see what it can be. Unleash yourself!
Until next time,
LJ
Eclectic Energy 