Sunday, August 26, 2012

Timeless Treasures

I get so inspired by reading beautiful decorating books.
Ideas that are timeless and tested, and in a world of throw-away products, solid, furniture is a treasure.

I think back to my grandmother, who furnished her home with quality furniture, lasting her a lifetime.
It seems our grandparents knew the value of well-made pieces. 
                                   
                                         

Step inside the pages and you are transported back, to a slower, gentler time.

    





















I know not how it may be with others
Who sit amid relics of householdry
That date from the days of their mothers' mothers,
But well I know how it is with me
Continually.

I see the hands of the generations
That owned each shiny familiar thing
In play on its knobs and indentations,
And with its ancient fashioning
Still dallying:

Hands behind hands, growing paler and paler,
As in a mirror a candle-flame
Shows images of itself, each frailer
As it recedes, though the eye may frame
Its shape the same.

On the clock's dull dial a foggy finger,
Moving to set the minutes right
With tentative touches that lift and linger
In the wont of a moth on a summer night,
Creeps to my sight.

On this old viol, too, fingers are dancing -
As whilom--just over the strings by the nut,
The tip of a bow receding, advancing
In airy quivers, as if it would cut
The plaintive gut.

And I see a face by that box for tinder,
Glowing forth in fits from the dark,
And fading again, as the linten cinder
Kindles to red at the flinty spark,
Or goes out stark.

Well, well. It is best to be up and doing,
The world has no use for one to-day
Who eyes things thus--no aim pursuing!
He should not continue in this stay,
But sink away.

Thomas Hardy's : Old Furniture

14 comments:

MadSnapper said...

my mother bought a sofa in 1963 and when she died in 1990 it was still in the house, she had put slip covers on it many times to change the look, she had her maytag for 25 years, mine lasted about 5 years.
i love the look and feel of furniture like in the first photo.

Ginny said...

My husband and I still have many pieces of furniture from his parents and a few from his grandparents which were given to us when we got married, 38 years ago.

John Going Gently said...

I ant a hall like that!
right now!

Barbee' said...

I will be 76 in Oct. and I still am using my grandparents' furnishings. Lately I've been going to a local auction house just for fun, not to buy. I have seen good items sell for $5.00. If I were a young person today, I would not shop stores, I would go to auctions for lovely, and sometimes, old pieces. First I would go when it is open for previewing just to examine what will come up for sale. Young people just starting out would get so much more for their money.

Michelle said...

I love old pieces and have quite a few antiques. So much better, and interesting, than new stuff.

Nellie said...

What a very nice composition by Thomas Hardy. It really makes us think, doesn't it?

We have a few old pieces from my grandmother and mother. I wonder what - from this age - will endure through the generations to come.

Have a good week, Jo!

Barbara Anne said...

Our grown sons say our living room looks like a grandmother's - but that's because most of the furniture came from my parents or grandparents, and a few pieces belonged to my great or great-great grandparents. I love dusting and polishing things that the women of my family cared for in decades past.

Old furniture is so much better made and bargains abound.

I wish our library had those books you show in your photos.

Cheers!

Terry said...

Whenever we see a glimpse of your home, I think how lovely it is.

My favorite pieces in my home are ones that were handed down from our families.

Tweedles -- that's me said...

We have some old pieces too that were hand made from long ago.
A very beautiful verse.
love
tweedles

donna baker said...

English gardens and decorating, what's not to love...

rusty duck said...

The style shown in those books is what I am aiming for exactly.

We have a way to go, but will get there sooner or later! Jx

Stella Jones said...

I'm still in that old slow age Jo and all my furniture is old like that. I have one sewing table which belonged to my Oma when she was a young woman. Do you subscribe to 'This England' by any chance?

DeniseinVA said...

The older I get the more I love the old things. it would be lovely to have some old furniture from our grandparents' day.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

In reading this past, the following came to my mind: "They just don't make things like they used to!"

That is a true statement... Nothing we buy --and even when we spend alot of money, lasts as long or is as good as what was made years ago.. Kinda sad, isn't it???

Hugs,
Betsy