Country Furniture Online

I do love going out into the countryside – walking out along the lanes is just so relaxing and therapeautic, most of the time anyway.  It can get a bit tense when you have to encounter dog walkers, bike riders, and the like.  But when I think back to books and articles on the old country houses, they had a lot more going on along the lanes.  Carriages from the big house would take up a vast space, going rather slower than today’s mode of transport.  Then there was the twice yearly livestock movements – in the spring there would be the sheep with their lambs turfed out into the grassy fields, as was cattle, pigs and fowl.   I like to think of these regular events when I’m sitting in country tea rooms with their  lovely old furniture and it feels like I am part of this old unchanging world.  At least for a few minutes here and there.

I have a young relative who with her partner moved from a compact starter home to their dream house in the country.  The move involved much more than just changing houses though.  Once they had waved the removal folk goodbye, they unpacked the essentials and scooted off to check on their long list of newly ordered furnishing items from an independent maker and supplier who had exactly the country furnishing theme they so desired.  It had always been their intention to change up from smart, convenient modular furniture to massive, comfortable 4 seater sofas and this has now been achieved with aplomb.  Together with beautiful stag shaped lamp stands for the floor and tables.  With their garden meeting the edge of the wood surrounding the stately home next door, this back drop couldn’t be more perfect. On the walls are photos of the house in a previous incarnation, as aperfect thatched cottage.

Ah how I remember back to the old days when I was never quite able to appreciate the beauty of beams in any property conversion.   I would see these great barns on the property programmes on tv, the host or hostess would stand back, as the parties trying to move are standing below, absolutely agog at the wonder of all the cross beams and arched beams.  I always thought they looked a bit heavy and out of place in an otherwise super modern looking environment.  Wrong!  Now that I have close relatives who do enjoy exactly this scene every day, with carefully preserved beams running along the landing between and through the bedrooms.  I have only nearly bopped myself on them, but having been thoroughly warned, I remember to bob a cursey.  The furniture chosen for the home has really brought those beams alive now – exactly the right painted oak to lighten and refresh.

When December comes round, there is that feeling of de ja vu, quite reasonably.  It is the one constant in our lives for most folk in this country anyway.  The seasons come and go, the easter period can be early spring or late, depending on the moon – very odd, that particular timing!  With all these shifts of time, the furniture we use and love becomes part of the fabric of our lives.  This is more relevant of course when we have really old houses, with furnishings that have been handed down from generation to generation.  We can try to get a lovely selection of family favourites from dedicated online sites – it is never going to be quite the same as knowing that your family has used this item or that for several generations, but heritage has to start somewhere and buying today’s antiques will ensure they continue to be treasured for yet more years!

When I lived in a tiny village, the biggest properties there were the village school, the memorial hall and the gorgeous 14th Centure church.  There were lots of houses and an old windmill that now only had part of the rigging left for all to see, the inner parts having been dismantled years ago.   Some of the fmailies we knew then had been in the village for several generations.  It was a source of fascination to me, having come from a family that travelled around because of our father’s service, it was  interesting to meet up with the older folk who laid claim to their cottage having been given to the family three or four generations ago.  Whenever harvest festival came round old family chairs & chests would be loaned to the church to support sheaves of wheat and other giving, as they had done for 3 or 4 hundred years previous.  Even the mice seemed to stand in awe!