“Furniture For Life?”

I don’t know about you but I have had furniture in our home from the beginning of
my marriage. Without getting way too personal, that was a very long time ago. I
was a child! It’s not that I ever had terrible taste, but I went through a
little bit of a Victorian period, and living in an 18th century house didn’t
help matters. Antique is antique, right? 18^th century? 19^th
century? Architecture? What’s the difference?
Thank goodness for design school. It was very educational. I also grew up.
Not that mixing up periods isn’t allowed. Mixing things up can make interiors more
interesting. But what I started to notice was that my taste was changing, and I
had all this furniture that appealed to me or was passed on to me at a very
different time of my life. Sofas, tables, beds, chairs, carpets, lamps! Apparently,
I had done such a great job picking it out in my 20’s that it was holding up
just fine. (That’s what my husband thought.) I was longing for my dogs to chew
it up! Or maybe even a burst pipe – or a small fire…
My reaction was getting pretty intense every time I walked through my kitchen or
looked at my bed. I love history but really??? I didn’t sign up for furniture-for-life.  Even my dogs were too bored with it to bother
chewing it up.
So I was surprised by my feelings for the old furniture when I finally started to replace
it. Now granted, the pieces that I was getting rid of were some key ones, like
our bed, kitchen table and chairs, a full length dressing mirror. (There is a
point where you don’t want to see the whole picture every morning when you wake
up; it can be startling!)
Yes,I wanted the old furniture gone. But it became important to me that it go to
someone I knew personally and who would love it as much as I had for all these
years. We did try Craig’s List for a while but ended up giving it to two young
couples that we knew well – and who we knew would take care of the pieces and
enjoy them as we had.
And I get to visit my old furniture….when I’m invited!