I was e-chatting with Kristi of Here Be Old Things over the weekend and she sent me a link to her Mother’s Day post on how became interested in antiques.
It made me think about my own history with old junk.
My parents always liked modern design. Well, can you call it design if it’s just contemporary crap? Fuzzy couches and mirrored mantels? It looked like I was growing up in a pimp’s crib! Anyway, my mother hates antiques. No use for them. She did, however, work as a bookkeeper for an antiques dealer. A dealer who happened to be her best friend also. I spent more time over at her antique filled home next door than in my own. That was probably the start of it.
During my teens and early twenties in the 80’s I was the Vintage Clothing Queen (Ok, I still am). If I wasn’t shopping at Reminiscence, Canal Jeans, Zoot or Unique, I’d be scavenging stoop sales and flea markets. Now a favorite pastime.
Our first home project wasn’t a proper restoration. The house was 1905, but all of the detail was long gone, so it was just a new renovation. The second home wasn’t old at all. It wasn’t until our third and fourth homes that we started looking into salvage and period furnishings. We’ve been going a little overboard keeping it real. More work, but more fun and less money….as long as we DIY.
And that, my friends, is how I really got involved with all of this old crap. I can’t believe how much we used to spend on antiques before researching this properly. Hello, $3500 dining room table? $2000 armoire? I swear I can find these things for less than $500 now, easy!
So that’s my story. What’s yours?
2 Comments
Love your story (and that photo!). Both of my grandmas’ homes were filled with antiques (many cast-offs they acquired from their parents…but their parents were born in the late 1800s). And I loved staying with them and started to sketch room ideas and where I would place the furniture. I would walk around my neighborhood alone as a little kid and go to yard sales. When I was in high school everyone wanted to go to a flea bag hotel after our prom…I wanted to go to a bed and breakfast so I could look at the old stuff. Basically, I’ve always been hooked on old tchotchke!
Phew…way long comment. Sorry ’bout that. But you asked for it. 😉
Well, at you answered. Which is more than I can say for my other readers!!
Wow, while you were walking around your neighborhood alone fleaing it up, I was dancing in my living room (as per photo above).