Category: Antiques

How to Clean Antique Furniture

How to Clean Antique Furniture

I love being invited into someone’s home when they still have the old family pieces of furniture, especially when there has been grandma’s level of care attached to them.   The modern way of thinking includes such instruction as dusting off each piece with eithr a dry lint free duster or very soft brush to remove loose dust from all surfaces.  Sometimes it will be necessary to carefully reach the out of the way places with a vacum cleaner brush attachment.   You have to take care not to knock the corners or cornices.   Next dilute some mild washing up liquid and rinse out a cleaning cloth in it, wringing it out very well so it is barely damp.  Must not be more damp as that will ruin the furniture.  A very gentle wipe over grain of the surface to remove dirt, will be all that’s needed.  Dry off thoughourly with another soft dry cloth.  it is critical not to wet the surface, if your cloth is too damp, take steps to blot it dry with copious cloths.

Travelogues Present Cherished Early Furniture

Travelogues Present Cherished Early Furniture

There’s been a fascinating series on mainstream tv by an ex politician who is now a traveller and very decent presenter of interesting facts.  He carries a well known rail gujide from the last century – depending on location.  His travelogues have become more and more popular – not only is he an engaging personality, but they find interesting folk to chat to in each of the locations filmed.  I have seen fantastic historical pieces about early English and European settlers in the States – the stories of racial and ethnic cleansing are humiliating and true, sadly.  However, as there’s nothing we can do about our sordid past now, I feel it best to capture the essence of the programmes and enjoy what each person wishes to show me!  Fantastic arrays of early furniture are usually the mainstay, and the earliest working machinery.   The furniture is so lovingly cherished, moreso in the States and Canada it would seem.

Buying Up Country House Sales

Buying Up Country House Sales

Does anybody else assume you have to live out in the country in a massive mansion or huge cottage before we can begin to take an interest in antiques.   I have a slight advantage here in that I volunteered as a room steward at just such a property.  I live in an area where there are many properties dating back to the English civil war and before.  Admittedly they are all just up the road from the most famous civil war battle ground, which suggests much support for the winning side at the time.  The furnitue in the house I know does not all fall into the ‘family antique herloom’ category and is in fact made up of odd buys from other country house sales.  At one time the house was livedin by a very famous inerior decorating socialite who came over from the US with her husband and wanted to buy theur way into the very top tie of society.   Leasing this housde and filling it with ‘appropriate’ aged furnishings enabled her to look the part and buy into society she certainly did.

Heritage House Gives Local Market A Flurry

Heritage House Gives Local Market A Flurry

Upon opening the cover of my favourite country style living magazine, which is not only nationwide, but also often includes articles from europe and the USA, my eyes hit upon a property very local to me.  I nearly fell off my chair because this particular stately pile has always been talked about in hushed tonesd and with a reverence held normally for very very important people.   There has been a general assumption that it was still owned by the slightly aristocratic family who bought it some 300 years ago.  But upon loooking at the description of the property – in all its glory over 2 pages of the mag, it would seem that it was sold once before, in the early 2000s.   Word has now gone round about this incredible bit of news — the local ‘big house’ up on the market for a smidgen short of £10M.  It seems absolutely unbelievable.  The write up suggests it has eleven bathrooms and sixteen bedrooms.  All sorts of statistics fill the paragraph of ‘what we have to offer’.  Oh how I would love to be able to pretend to be a buyer on the look out!

Scandi Minimalism Over Richly Covered Oak

Scandi Minimalism Over Richly Covered Oak

It’s faunny thing the way the brain works.   Whenever I think of the very very large scandinavian furniture and household emporium, I automatically think of a modern purpose built apartment or town house.  Their starkly practical and modern ethos that means everything has to have a function and more if possible, no frills, just good honest pricing with modern materials, it’s hard to picture some of their plainer pieces in a country house setting.  There is something so perfect about the prospect of opening up a gorgeous solid oak front door, to reveal oak tables and chairs, chesterfield sofas and everything from a previous period.  There’s no reason why modernist furniture can’t be placed in the same setting though.   There are many places where simple lines in an old home look especially effective – highlighting the amount of space and breathing room a large house offers!  Their kitchens are fantastic too – and no one replaces and old kitchen with another old one, they are alwayts ultra modern chrome and white!

Joy Of Returning Home To My Oak Furniture

Joy Of Returning Home To My Oak Furniture

There is certainly something to be said about keeping the beauty of oak furniture in a house.  I stay with various relatives and many of them, it must be said, have the scandi pared back to the minimum look about their decor and furnishings.  When I then when I get home, I really appreciate mmy oak – specially in the dining room.  A few years ago I invested in a fabulous oak side board – it was modern and one I’d seen in a very upmarket retailer a few years before at a much higher price than my household expenditure could run to.  So I was thrilled when visiting my local adhoc furnishing store that sells discontinued lines and saw the very same at a much more appealing price.   However, that started a bit of a run and I then changed my scandi dining table for an oak one matching the sideboard and then of course, the chairs needed upgrading too!  But I love it all and feel at home as soon as I enter the room.

Sterio Typing Furniture Ideas For Country Cottage

Sterio Typing Furniture Ideas For Country Cottage

There does seem to be a natural corrolation with the sound of Country Living and rich antique looking furniture.  for some reason my brain fails to make an instant connection between a pretty country cottage and scandinavian minimalism and modern no frills furniture.  There’s absolutely no reason why someone wouldn’t want the clean lines and unfussy nature of their rubberwood and new manufactured designs.   There is just something that doesn’t sit so comfortably – quite literally.  I own several pieces of start modern no frill furniture which we bought as we moved into our very unromantic detached family house.  I also own some attractive oak furniture – which does not look even slightly antique.  It is a funn o9ld thing how my brain has a definite thought process, dictated entirely upon sterio type thinking and not actually being exposed to the joys of actually enjoying country living.  Though it must be said that I do live on the edge of a village – no chocolate box cottages here sadly.

Car Booting Is Not How To Acquire Decent Antiques

Car Booting Is Not How To Acquire Decent Antiques

I do have a joy these days of watching the tv programmes that feature auctions or at least valuations of furniture and effects that could be offered for sale at them.  There’s something rather sad seeing a family taking their heirlooms to the expert – either we already like the party and have some empathy for them. .  Or we’ve found them truly annoying and are quite pleased when the expert questions the provenance of the article, not rediculing it, but gently letting them down with a more likely scenario, whilst hacking several hundred off the anticipated value.   If we want to buy antique furniture for ourselves, it is always advisable to do a great eal of research and to buy from reputable dealers and auction houses.  The car boot sale and pop up ‘one day only’ sales are always going to be suspect.  Stolen items can be disposed of this way – although many of the purloined beauties are stolen to order and shipped abroad immediately, there are outlets for other lucky acquisitions.

Mellow Months Ideal For Antique Shop Sortis

Mellow Months Ideal For Antique Shop Sortis

Ah the sheer joy of September, after the first full week, that is.  The youngster have all started, or gone back to school an the university students are making their final preparations for the ‘off’.  There is much more time and space everywhere.  The old towns, particularly in the tourist spots, have seen their influx of visitors go back to whence they came;  the chip papers and rubbish has been collected and dispersed to the dump.  Now these little towns can sit back with a sigh and get on with every day living!  I love the mellowness, when I can visit my favourite places – auction houses and genuine antique emporiums.  always on the lookout for beautiful quality furniture, wooden accessories and anything with a bit of history to it.  I love the smell, the feeling of old age in the second hand and antique shops.  Nothing beats that old beeswax smell!

Summer Holidays Incorporate Historic House Rambles

Summer Holidays Incorporate Historic House Rambles

At least in the summer months, July and August for example, the weather can usually be relied upon to keep us calm, keep us warm, and most of all, keep us from going batty with mud an wet weather gear keeping everything nicely damp!  I love going off for a good poke around a country house – now that I have a little more time to myself, I have taken out membership of three of the major heritage charities and enjoy nothing better than planning a sorti to one or two properties wherever I happen to be in the country.  The membership is useful also when I’m travelling around and want to stop off for a nice, relaxed, quality cuppa – the car parks are always free to members and the tea shops are absolutely top notch!  This reflects the quality of the furniture inside most of them too – such history and feeling of belonging!