Old Favorites

I was over at Miss Mustard Seed and saw that she has a great feature on furniture each Friday!  You can post about furniture projects and makeovers, furniture finds, favorite furniture, and even furniture you've been dreaming about.

I'm mid way through a few furniture projects, including painting my old green bucket bench with a fresh, crisp coat of Benjamin Moore Simply White, one of my favorite colors.  My entire kitchen is this color, and all of the new trim in our house is as well.  I also need to apply the crown moulding to the cabinet my father made years ago, that we just got around to assembling and painting black.  The black cabinet has really cute knobs that I bought on a whim on clearance from Anthropologie.  I had thought I might use them in our kitchen when we remodeled it, but then decided against it, so tucked them away for a future project and the black cabinet seemed like the perfect fit for them.

More on these projects at a later date.

So for today's Furniture Feature Friday, I decided I would post about some of my favorite pieces.  I have lots of favorite furniture, some we purchased, others we inherited, and some beloved pieces that were handmade for me so it was difficult to choose, but the two I did pick are truly two of my favorite pieces!  They were both purchased items, and both were bought over 15 years ago. 

The dough box was purchased probably 20 years ago...wow could it have been that long ago?!  We had just purchased our first house and didn't have two nickels to rub together, but my wise mother convinced me to purchase it on layaway from a local antique store, saying that I would regret it if I didn't.  She was right of course, and she also probably fixed us dinner a lot over the next month to help me save on groceries so that I could afford to pay it off and bring it home.  She was like that!

Here it is 20 years and three homes later, and I still love it as much today as I did the day I first saw it.  The dovetailed box and peg constructed legs, all made from pine, have a patina that makes my heart sing.  I often wonder where it was made, maybe by a loving husband or father like so many of my furniture pieces?  Or what delicious breads, biscuits, and rolls were left to rise within it's confines.

I love its well worn character, the nicks and gouges, the cracks and blemishes which all add to its appeal.

Another one of my favorite pieces came from a small shop on Solomon's Island, that is no longer in business.  It was a great store in an old house with steep stairs and treasures tucked in every room.  I popped in one day and as soon as I saw this I just had to have it!  The kids were older, we had a little more money and the foyer in our "then" house was begging for this table!

It's made from an old house shutter and painted a warm mustard yellow.  This color went better in our old house, but I just can't bring myself to paint over it even though I suspect it's not the original color.  It now sits in the hallway leading to our bedrooms and I even swept up the "tufties" of dog hair that the dogs like to leave for me each and every day, that were under it this morning!

I love the old hardware and the aged finish of the paint.  It's funny, every person who worked on our house from the plumbers to the flooring guys all commented on this table and how much they liked it.  I have to agree, it is a special piece that we will certainly pass down.

For more great furniture or to post your own great pieces, head over to Miss Mustard Seed for Furniture Feature Friday!