Welcome to Favourite Things Friday. I wanted to thank everyone who linked up last week and shared their favourite things. There were some fantastic favourites!
So here's the deal. You write a post about one of your favourite things and then link to this post with the linky at the bottom, so everyone who is participating can come and have a sticky beak at your favourite thing. Easy! And you can share anything you like. You're a creative bunch and I'm looking forward to seeing this weeks posts.
My Father In Law is a building supervisor/project manager.Years ago, Mr. P's Dad was asked to remove an old dresser from a building site and dump it. At the time Mr. P had a typical boy house with no furniture so FIL brought the dresser home to Mr. P who was house sharing with a mate at the time, and said mate took the dresser for storage in his bedroom.
When I moved in with Mr. P the mate moved out , and left the dresser. Mr. P happened to mention that he was going to offer it to his mate for 50 bucks. I asked Mr. P to show it to me because I thought we might be able to use it in our shed. ( truthfully I was hoping it would be marginally better than the 1950's veneer dresser he had in our bedroom which I still get the chills thinking about , and for some reason that continues to defy belief he was actually very attached to ) This is what he showed me.
Isn't it pretty? It has handmade dovetail joints, and I've never stripped it and rubbed it back, because it oozes awesome just the way it is even down to the burn mark on the edge.
Since I love old furniture that oozes awesome, I told Mr. P that I wanted to put it in our bedroom. It seemed better to me at the time to use the wood dresser in the hope that Mr. P would see we couldn't possibly fit 2 dressers in our room and I could shuffle the veneer monstrosity out to the junk pile without hurting his feelings. Mission accomplished. By the way I did a lot of that round here when I moved in. Slowly and tactfully.
About 6 months later we were driving past an upmarket antique store when we saw a similar dresser in the window. Since we had no idea how old ours was , we stopped for a look, in the hope it was similar enough for us to get a date. It was exactly the same down to the locks and handles. It's a cedar chest made in 1880. And it's worth $3500.00. That's approximately one bajillion US dollars. Mr. P was pretty darn glad at that point he hadn't offered it to the mate for 50 bucks. And I got to pat myself on the back for having such fabulous taste and a keen eye for quality.
Since then, our entire bedroom has been built around this antique 130 year old dresser, including our built in wardrobes. I often wonder how many people have had their things in the same drawers I'm using now and how much history this dresser has seen. Yep-I'm a romantic at heart.
And I still love that dresser as much as I did when I first clapped eyes on it almost a decade ago. And it's not about it's worth because it's not for sale. Which means unlike the rest of the house our bedroom is never likely to be re-done in white.
Thanks for visiting. I can't wait to see your Favourite Things!
15 comments:
Wow! I thought it was a very pretty old dresser, but I'd never guessed it was 130 years old. Made things to last back then, didn't they? It's a very lovely piece of furniture on which to build an entire bedroom ensemble. Shudder to think, Mr. P. almost sold it for $50.
Love the dresser, Men have no idea at times do they.. my husband thinks the 70's wood panelling in the family room is still "in fashion" and won't let us change it, well it goes with the 70's picture of John Lennon that takes pride of place. All week I have come up with My favourite things and now I can't think of them, too much show day yesterday I think. Will have a ponder on the way to work today, something will come up while I am in the ZONE.
I love the dresser, lucky Mr P didn't give it away for $50. I love your bedroom too. Lots of white and timber, lovely.
I have a sleigh bed too, to match a beautiful old oak dresser that we bought from the previous owners of our old house as they didn't want to take it with them. Snap!
How lucky are you, after 23 years I am still living with the lovely veneer bedroom set DH had when he was flatting. The really sad thing is it never got damaged in the earthquake either, bugger it. Love your bedroom, its so restful and glam.
I love it Mrs. P, and what a great story behind it, as well!
Wow, that's GREAT! It makes me re-think my new IKEA dresser...(Black) Also glad to see you made your bed today.
What a beauty! I love it....and I'd just have to pass on the white too....that is a real treasure!
What a fantastic dresser! It's just gorgeous. You really do have excellent taste. Charming bedroom too!
It's like the Aussie version of antiques roadshow! That is so awesome how it arrived in your possession. I love that something that is so valuable to you actually is very valuable. You really do have a good eye. That chest is really beautiful and your room is so lovely! Love your favorite thing today. FTF is fast becoming one of my favorite things.
xo -E
I love that dresser! Timber furniture has such warmth and character to it doesn't it....much nicer than veneer ;-)
PS I am glad to see that you made the bed also.....your bedroom is so much neater than mine!! LOL
What a lovely dresser! It would be my favourite too. Thanks for sharing. Happy Friday! :o)
What a beautiful dresser. I love the color, and it fits beautifully with the rest of the bedroom, or the rest of the bedroom fits beautifully with the dresser. However you want to look at it. Thanks for doing FTF. I love it!
good taste, Mrs P!
That is a real beauty. I have some old pieces,including my great grandmother's Victorian rocking chair. It took a beating living in my Grandma's house with 8 boys after she was gone, but my uncle replaced the rockers.
Mr. P is lucky you have good taste!
what a wonderful story about one of your favorite things! i was actually looking for a link party with this name and i found you! i hope to join if i get to make a post this week.
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