You'd think with all my spewing about antiques that I surround myself with them. I grew up sleeping in an antique iron bed with an antique dresser in a house full of antiques or craftsman-inspired pieces. My parents loved refinishing furniture and finding neat pieces at tag sales (or garage sales, or yard sales, or whatever you want to call them). When I moved out on my own, I needed a change from the sea of beige and antiques that I grew up in- I bought mostly new things and refused to take mismatching hand-me-down furniture just to save a few bucks. I ended up with a lot of nice things with no sense of history or true character. After moving into our current apartment, I did the same thing, but wanted to infuse the apartment with more character. Some of the new pieces we bought were vintage-inspired, but still lacked the aura of true antiques. Hubby and I created a music room out of the unused living room (we used the larger 'dining room' as a living room instead), but left it unfinished. It housed our piano, Hubby's guitars and other random musical equipment. I had a strategic plan for the room and painted the walls a turquoisey-blue with a satin stripe faux finish. Hubby was skeptical about the paint, but I made him a believer! The room was missing something. It needed seating and we had a red chair in mind (to pull colors out of the funky area rug in the room), but refused to settle for just anything. When a friend's aunt passed away, we were given the opportunity to pick from the unclaimed items before the sale of her house. Sitting inconspicuously in a dark room were an antique red chair and setee the perfect scale for our space. Our friend was thrilled that we took the pieces which were originally his grandfathers and he was happy to see them 'staying in the family'- we(Hubby) compensated our friend for giving us these pieces by making a sushi dinner for him and his family (yum). Those pieces completed the room more than I expected. They were the perfect vintage flare for an eclectic space. Modern electric guitars on the wall, upright piano from the 40s, funky carpet and antique red seating.
It is through this room that Hubby and I discovered the style of design we both could agree on and enjoy. We hope to carry the eclectic feel of the music room to the new house.
When I started writing this post, I intended to talk about a different piece of furniture, but got stuck on this tangent- oops. So consider this part one of this post. Part 2 to follow tomorrow.
