9.18.2009

Herloom Party on Emma Calls Me Mama- A very old hutch.

Sorry about the lack of craft post yesterday, I lost my camera. It has since been located and I will post my Thursday craft tomorrow.



Today is the Heirloom Party on Emma Calls Me Mama. I am very excited to participate today although if you would have asked me a year ago I would have barfed declined.

Here's the story:

We bought our house last summer. The owners were moving to Florida and, to save them the hastle and expense of shipping and storing all thier stuff, decided to add all their furniture into the sale price of our house.

It was all pretty much brand new. They left all the receipts, warranties, and manuals in named files in the office for us.

AWESOME People.

Along with all the new stuff there was something old in the dining room that they wanted to sell us. It was a GIANT hutch made by the owners great-great grandfather sometime in the late 1800's early 1900's.

Photobucket

They wanted $900 for it and I said NO WAY! It was ugly, it was HUGE, it smelled old, the glass was melting, it was rusting....it was not my style

at. all.

We respectfully declined their offer.

On closing day they asked if they could leave it. They were unable to sell it in such a short period of time and it was too expensive for them to ship it down to Florida. So in our dining room it stayed.

I hated it.
It creeped me out BIG time.

I took pictures of it and tried to sell it to antique dealers. I got some offers but never excepted any of them.

I am now glad that I didn't.

As time went by that huge, ugly, smelly, rusting, melting hutch has grown on me.

I started using it to store all the kids messy activities in. Crayons, markers, paints, play dough, paper...... than when I got into sewing and crafting I started filling it up with all that stuff.

It has actually worked out great.

As you can see when the doors are shut it looks like a regular hutch with my wine glasses and serving dishes

Photobucket

but when you open it up you have all of mine and the girls crafting stuff.

Photobucket

Photobucket

It has quickly become my most favorite piece of furniture in the entire house.

Besides the fact that it hides all of my crafting supplies away it has great detail.

It amazes me that someone was able to carve these legs without the use of a rotery saw,

Photobucket

and hand carve the molding at the top(the corner pieces are sitting on top, they fell of at some point),

Photobucket

and hand make this glass that has warped and melted over the past 100 + years,

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

and put these knobs on and make a key hole,

Photobucket

Photobucket

I have come to realize that this hutch was not whipped up in one day by a machine in a factory or put together in a week but a skilled craftsman using modern tools, it was hand built, over a period of time, by someone who labored and put all of their pride in making it.

So, out of respect for the man who made this hutch, I have decided to embrace and love this piece of furniture for what it is,

A
FABULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL

piece of work.

8 comments:

Debra@CommonGround said...

This is an amazing piece of furniture, and beside the fact that you got it free, is that you actually began to fall for it! It looks very old and handmade to me. I can tell it's a large piece. It's a real show stopper!
Debra

Tara said...

You really lucked out here! This hutch is amazing. You gotta love things you can hide junk in too!

Barbara Jean said...

What a beautiful story.
and the hutch is beautiful
you just don't get things like that these days.

blessings and thanks for coming by

barbara jean

Kim @ Starshine Chic said...

Loved the story. Isn't it funny how we can hate something at first & then fall madly in love with it later. Kind of reminds me of my hubby. Just kidding. Love the hutch.

Sandi@ Rose Chintz Cottage said...

What an amazing piece of furniture! Great price too! Thanks for sharing.

Blessings,
Sandi

Michelle Hughes said...

I guess you lucked out! It is very nice!

SMiles,
Michelle

Marie said...

Hello Lo - oh my. You made me giggle with your story. I'm so glad you learned to embrace that fabulous piece! It's gorgeous. All its flaws and everything about it. I love that you also use it for your crafting/kids play stuff. And...how did you get down that low to take a pic of the feet?

Thank you for joining me for the party!

Blessings,
Marie
http://emmacallsmemama.com

Maureen said...

Neat piece! The interesting thing is that, since glass is actually a liquid, it flows (albeit very slowly). Over the span of a 100 years, you might start to notice that the glass at the bottom of the window is thicker than at the top.
Glad you have warmed up to your heirloom!