Antique spool cabinet.
After Paul carried in this antique spool cabinet, he stood back and looked around… He said – it’s getting to be like someone’s crazy great-aunt lives here.
I nodded with satisfaction. Because it’s true— I am on my way.
Also, let us be clear: a superior great-aunt who wears giant cocktail rings, enjoys martinis at noon, and keeps a twenty-something stable boy even though all the horses have died.
If I can get my house like that now, it will save me so much time down the road when I need to be arranging my hat collection and shaking my fist at the neighborhood children.
We put it on the dining room table until I figure out where it’s going; the base is pretty large and it does not fit on any surface I expected to put it.
This is my favorite kind of problem.
Up until now, I’ve been keeping my fancy bits in stacking mini cupcake carriers. They’re great for the dividers and organization options.
But I couldn’t see everything at once, and getting the bins out of the closet and unsnapping all the layers to look for something was decidedly UNfancy.
THIS IS BETTER.
I have been looking for an antique spool cabinet FOREVER, for exactly this purpose.
And although I was hoping for something BIGGER or BIGGEST… since I only paid $60, this will do just fine.
I LOVE the thick beveled glass and the little brass pulls and the “Belding Bros.” plate… ALL of it! Plus it’s nice to be able to see everything all at once!
Now. Transition to new topic.
I’m SUPER excited for my trip to the Autumn Spectacular Antique Fair… 100 booths filled with antiques, vintage and re-purposed dealers, in a huge Victorian barn… 20 minutes from my best friend. It’s like they created it JUST FOR ME!
I am presenting on Saturday and on Sunday… (Miss Mustard Seed too!)
I’m doing the same presentation both days (even though I was invited to present on two separate topics and even though I most certainly enjoy biting off way more than I can chew and becoming totally overwhelmed and regretting my own idiocy at every turn,) I decided to limit myself to ONE HOUR OF PURE GENIUS.
Do I have concern about this possibly-unreachable-bar-of-proclaiming-myself-the-Ludwig-Wittgenstein-of-antiquing?
Yes… That is why I have enlisted some professional help… they guarantee that their services are fail-proof.
I’ve structured what I have to say into five sections and sprinkled it with JAZZ HANDS and also some fascinating personal details that make me sound like I know what I’m talking about.
I’ve got my keynote slides all sorted out; because visual aids make everything more interesting!
Also because I am someone who needs a lot of structure.
A LOT of structure!
When I do a presentation, I need a clearly marked path… and I cannot deviate from that path or I will say something stupid.
Essentially, my brain cannot be trusted unsupervised.
I’m telling you all of this because I’m afraid I have overlooked something obvious… and I have always found that reading about other people’s experiences is a way that I process my own thoughts.
This is why memoir is my favorite genre. (Especially if the author has deliberately done very stupid things to ruin their own life.
So if you feel like sharing, I’d love to hear your thoughts on STUFF… Craigslist, auctions, estate sales, trash night… whatever you feel like.
Who/what sparked your stuff habit/what you’re longing for right now/your favorite place to score good stuff/mistakes you’ve made/what you’ve learned/what you think about your stuff/decorating with stuff/what you collect/why it’s interesting to you.
I think it will help me polish some of my segments by getting out of my own head!
September 15, 2016 @ 6:08 pm
Idea for your fancy bits spool cabinet: just attach some fancy legs to the bottom and let it be it’s own stand-alone piece!
September 15, 2016 @ 9:37 pm
Lovely find! You do have a penchant! Love the kitties too. Not ready for cats yet… still too “rubbed raw” from too much other stuff. You said to toss out your ideas/thoughts on antiquing. I have two:
1) When hunting Craigslist, go look at it, and offer 1/3 the asking price. The worst is they say no. Usually you get a counter. I scored an Amana Shaker bedroom set. Advertised at $2500 in a consignment shop. Could not get them below $2200 + $150 delivery. Walked away. Got a different set but still wanted it. I needed it for a second bedroom. So I offered them $800 if they ever get tired of listing it. They finally gave it to me for $800 and $100 delivery. I do the same whatever I buy.
2) Visit local auctions. They take a lot of persistence, and I always draw a hard line at my max. You’d be amazed at how you slowly but surely get the stuff you are looking for. If not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, next month.
September 16, 2016 @ 8:46 am
Spool cabinets are lovely, but I think you really need to look at the grandaddy of all GFT’s and find yourself a dental cabinet for your jewelry. We found one years ago and I have loved it ever since. I fitted each shelf with black velvet and bought some jewlry trays on line so I have sectioned compartments for earrings and pins and I even have ring holders. Check out this beautiful picture on line: http://www.dougschmittantiques.com/dental%20&%20doctors%20cabinets/harvard44X_2011/harvard44x_bullethole.htm
September 16, 2016 @ 7:12 pm
Now that I have read back in your blog, (and tremendously enjoyed it) I am noticing that your floors are looking suspiciously bare, and since you have filled up the place with awesome furniture, you need to have a new quest- rugs. And maybe paintings. Beautiful antique gilded frames on those paintings. 😉
September 16, 2016 @ 10:49 pm
Victoria, Loved your post about the HUGE mirror that you purchased from a dude on craigslist! It was fascinating and a GREAT (grand, even…) find, truly! I especially liked the photos (and description) of you and Paul bringing it home on the truck! How daunting was that!!? That was a HUGE specimen! Please visit my (wee) blog at the following address to see my recent (this summer) $5.00 find at an antique fair in Oshkosh, WI. We have the same BUG. My house is filled and then filled with various and sundry finds…(both) big (and then) small… 🙂
I like it that way.
Karen Powell
The $5.00 old window re-do:
http://www.ilikegleamingsurfaces.com/2016/07/way-cool-diy-project.html
September 17, 2016 @ 5:46 pm
The brownies that work inside the Facebook suggested one of your posts to me and I had to click. I’m glad I did!
Not only am I highly amused by your adventures, but it makes me feel so much better about my own life. I don’t stalk craigslist much, but I do feel a physical pain when I drive by a garage sale without stopping. Many, many things have found their way home with me from garage, rummage, yard, and barn sales. I am, however, a single mom with a small car and a small budget. My trunk will fit wide objects 42″ long, 50″ if they are narrow. I carry a tape measure in my pocket to garage sales. Granted, many of my purchases are clothes and toys, but my poor daughter has occasionally had to carry things on her lap because there was no other space in the car. I have nobody else to help me get things home, but I also have nobody to tell me I can’t! I have gotten some of the sellers to deliver their goods to my house. I once counted how many chairs of all different types we had; I think we are up to 35, even though there are only 2 of us. I have a shelf of lamps we don’t use. 3 antique sewing machines. Plus several things waiting for a good scrubbing, couple of coats of spraypaint, and to be useful. But nothing nearly as big as what you find!! 😀
September 19, 2016 @ 12:02 am
Any chance your presentation will be recorded and shared so those of us who cannot attend can still enjoy it? Thanks for all of the entertainment your blog provides — I nearly lost my mind over the Kingdom Mirror post.
September 19, 2016 @ 6:49 pm
This is a paragraph from one of my favorite books by Mary H Kingsley and I thought you would enjoy it tremendously. Whatever my friends might have to say about me– for my continual desire for hair pins, my intolerable habit of getting into water, the Abominations full of ants which I brought into people’s houses, or the things I brought in, which emitted at unexpectedly short notice vivid and awful stenches– they cannot but say that I was a diligent pupil. From Travels in West Africa. A true story about a trip to Cameroon and Gabon in 1897…
September 20, 2016 @ 8:54 pm
All of blog land is waiting with baited breath to see your kitchen reveal? How much longer?
September 21, 2016 @ 4:35 am
LOVE the little cabinet! I have a little tip for you. If you can find a little side table with the same dimensions the as the bottom of the cabinet, you can just put it on that and it becomes a little dresser that can easily be moved around. I have done the same thing with some antique file drawers that I now use as a bedside table. 🙂
Oh, and speaking of superior great-aunt, have you seen the Country house rescue episode with Cornelia Bailey lady of Plas Teg? LOVE her!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ_1N1U9tcM
September 24, 2016 @ 10:58 pm
My grandfather was a hoarder, or he would have been if not for my grandmother demanding he remain a mere ‘collector,’ and my mom followed in his footsteps. She too would be a hoarder if my father did not prevent her from over-accquiring. I think my husband is also the necessary restraint I require, both budgetary and spatially. I grew up yardsaling and thrifting with my mom and always loved the spirit of adventure contained in the ‘what if’ – I’m the least competitive person you’ll ever find until it comes to thrift shopping, then I become the huntress! It’s literally just that – the heart palpitating excitement and the tender buzz of anxiety when you pull up to a flea market, or sale, or thrift shop, or open craigslist, because you just do not know what could be inside.
Also, I’ve always loved unique and unpractical glamour. As a kid we had no cable, plus I read a lot of fashion magazines and books (mainly historical fiction and biographies – which I still today devour). I also watched a lot of movies from the 50’s and 60’s. Consequently I fell IN LOVE with the mid-century era and have never looked back. I have ALWAYS love love LOVED fashion and my thrift trawling started there. Before I met my husband, I owned no domestic items (except a mattress) and several suitcases and bins filled with fashion items. Now, as the mother of two sons, I gleefully occupy claim on all the closet real estate in the entire house.
After I got married I realized furniture was just as fun. I love mid-century danish modern from a very specific style and I have since childhood. It’s both upsetting and delightful that it’s currently so popular. Exciting because it’s more prevalent – especially when people buy items because they’re a fad, realize the pieces aren’t them, and plop them on CL. But it’s disappointing because competition is stiffer and prices up. When I started collecting it, you could grab that crap for next to nothing because people were practically giving it away.
I just adore the spirit that era embodies. The post-war exuberance, the embracing of the zany, and the desire to imbue glamour into everything. I love the clean, elegant lines which lend a quiet but evocative glamour that makes you take a second look. I love that era was about trying something fresh and reinventing the standard, and following your bliss even if your bliss was orange and green plaid. How To Steal A Million and Auntie Mame have been my inspiration since way back. I also love Art Deco – the 1920’s F. Scott Fitzgerald era makes me swoon. It’s the same reasons: the exuberance, the unexpected, the willingness to be original, the linear, geometric lines and patterns, and the idea that everything needs a second look to be seen; the little extra details that aren’t immediately visible,
I don’t know what I want until I see it, but I do have a ‘covet list’ both for clothes and household items. I loathe walking into a house and knowing something is Pottery Barn or Target or West Elm. So bland! It’s so fun when a person’s house has things to look at which represent them. I think a house is a living, breathing thing that changes with the time and influence of the characters who inhabit it, and the things inside the house should also reflect this. Do what you love, be who you are, and let the walls proudly proclaim it.
I love thrift stores, CL, yardsales, and flea markets, etc for my finds. I have not yet been emboldened to try auctions – my mom loves them, though. Estate sales are always annoyingly over-priced and filled with dealers. Unless it’s something I covet, I don’t want to pay very much.
I’ve defintiely made mistakes – who hasn’t? Usually it’s something I hyped up in my head, only to see it in person and be disappointed but not wanting to admit defeat. Like I’ll look at something in a photo, and then embellish it, get there and realize it’s not that great but want it to be ‘That great’ so badly that I impulse buy. I have a giant mirror-front cabinet from the 80’s stashed in my guest room to remind me of my foible (It’s still there because it’s so hard to get down the stairs!)
I try to pace myself and limit ‘questionable items’ to within a certain price point. My biggest mistakes are actually usually NOT buying something. I’m a bit slow to decide so I’ll see something on CL and bookmark it but then not follow-through in time because I worry about the price, or I think the people are too far away, etc. and then it’s gone. I am haunted by a few of those. And definitely haunted by clothing I missed out on – eBay is a fabulous place to score, if you’re patient and know how to look, but predicting auctions is a bitch.
I also have a hard time limiting myself because there is so much great stuff. I never want to settle or consider my house finished – nothing is permanent. If I find something better or more my taste, I am fully ready to pounce and get rid of the old thing (within a few exceptions of things I love). My husband, however, does not agree. He is no Paul and HATES moving unwieldly items we don’t “need.” He does not find the fun in thrifting or project-ing. It is our most persistent argument. We are on our second old-house reno in the last 6 years and arguing, arguing, arguing until there is no movement on a project for months (we’re presently redoing a kitchen as well). He cannot stand it that I’ll buy furniture when we don’t have drawer pulls. Oh well!
My favorite things to score are art – original framed pieces for next to nothing at sales! – dishware, and clothing, and, of course, furniture or other oddities. My best score was a Milo Baughman table paired with Mobler Chairs from the mid-60’s which I got on CL for $150. The guy had no idea what they were. I got the table restored and the refinisher offered to buy it from me for $1500 (which he considered a bargain). I shall never part with it – I love it so. I also got a Tommi Parzinger coffee table for like $40 and it is literally the most beautiful thing I own. So beautiful I keep it wrapped in my basement so no children can come into contact with it.
September 24, 2016 @ 11:00 pm
PS – sorry this is literally a memoir! I didn’t realize how long it was until I hit publish. It’s my hoarding manifesto, apparently. LOL
September 25, 2016 @ 12:41 am
Love the spool box…. I picked up a 1920s dental cabinet that is *supposed* to go in my dining room but suddenly the thin drawers seem more suited for a massive jewelery case. Not sure I could convince my husband to help heave it up the stairs, though. The marble base (!) is pretty formidable.
October 8, 2016 @ 7:40 pm
We were there at the talk in Rochester and you were fabulous! We related all your best stories to my dad who laughed too. We didn’t want Paul at all (despite video evidence), you were perfectly wonderful and funny! Also we saw you later and decided that you are wonderfully tall which fits perfectly with your tall furniture. Thanks!
October 25, 2016 @ 11:24 am
Where are you Victoria Barnes! It is October 25th and we have not heard from you!!
October 25, 2016 @ 1:52 pm
Great idea for a jewelry box. I would need at least 5 and they would all have to match.
December 29, 2016 @ 12:16 pm
My first teaching job was in Belding, Michigan, where those spool chests came from, and you would think that they would be easy to find. But no, have been looking for many years to no avail. If you ever find one to replace your current one please let me know!
March 28, 2017 @ 5:35 pm
Oh my, I have so many stories, but too exhausted to share after reading yours! Lol. Just wanted to say LOVE the pink chairs (they are pink, right? They look pink from here) And the HUGE cabinet behind. ..WOW!! Missed that story/playing catch up/first tuned in with kingdom mirror! As usual you deserve a reward for expressive, entertaining, and humorous writing. Love the ribbon cabinet…spent yesterday repurposing/too tired today for suggestions, but of course you’ll think of an ideal purpose for it. Get a few finches and create an aviary… 😉 Or simple beauty, leave it empty!
You are refreshing! Thanks again!