Cammie and Adam’s Fountain

04.26.2010

It’s been a while, but I thought after at least one day of nice Spring weather last weekend, it is time for a Spring themed Sentimental Salvage!

Last summer, my husband Adam and I were doing up the garden at our fixer-upper cottage in Columbia County (and until recently, our full-time home.) We hired a very helpful young landscaper to give us pointers on the best plants to suit our needs, and to help us give our five-by-five-foot dirt patch a sense of design. The landscaper, Adam and I were all in agreement that the garden needed a central focal point. Adam loves water fixtures, as do I, so a fountain soon became our first choice. We went to the Home Depot, and while they had some nice ones, we wanted to find something more original. Adam was on the hunt for a massive structure (like a stone head!) and I wanted something a bit more delicate and traditional. Our next stop was an Asian import shop that we’d frequented in the past. They have beautiful things, although, unfortunately, most of it is out of our price range. We strolled around the backyard showroom, finding some almost-matches, but nothing that we could afford. And then I saw it – a blue and white porcelain stump-thingy lying on its side beside the dumpster. I went over to inspect and realized that this was the base to an outdoor table. It had a piece broken at the bottom, but the piece was in tact enough to be Krazy Glued back on. I asked the shop owner how much and he said $25. Now that was more like it! Another trip to Home Depot and we had an inexpensive water fixture that our electrician could install at the top of our makeshift fountain. He spent less than an hour drilling a small hole through the porcelain and running a cable into our house, where we could plug the fountain in. Voila, we had our garden centerpiece for under $50! Adam hemmed and hawed a bit about not getting his big stone head, but our little porcelain fountain has since grown on him tremendously!

Submitted by Cammie and Adam Black, soon to be my Brooklyn neighbors!

A Sentimental Salvage is the story behind that truly special, one-of-a-kind piece in your home. It may be furniture that’s been in your family for years or an accessory you delighted in finding yesterday. However long it’s been in your life, this piece of your home holds special meaning and sentimental value. Email salvagedgrace@gmail.com if you’ve got a Sentimental Salvage of your own to share.

Barn to Table

01.29.2010

I’ve had this old wooden stirrup on my table for many, many years. It belonged to my great grandfather. I found it in his old barn more than 30 years ago. I cleaned it up and have used it ever since on my table for a napkin holder. This surely is a piece of “salvaged grace” in my house (and my heart) and wanted to share with you.

Submitted by Renae Heustess (my second mom and a soon to be grandmother). I grew up with Renae’s daughter, Brooke, who is welcoming her first child, Dylan Scott Bauer to the world in April. Exciting times!

Of family lore

01.14.2010

MUCH to my delight, we found some items during our basement Excavation that have no dollar value at all. But these are the fibers of my family and truly Sentimental Salvages.

The outside signage for my great grandmother’s beauty shop. Note the phone number!

The clock that hung outside my grandfather’s dental office. All my cousins and I remember that when we were children, whenever we’d see my grandfather (whether at the dentist or not), he’d cup his hand under our chins and ask to see our teeth.

Many apologies for this picture! I didn’t realize the significance of this tin until later, when we discussed it and there wasn’t enough time to go back downstairs to take a picture. This was a tin that one of the (multiple) Ann’s in my family wrote her name on (I believe she was a teenager at the time), along with the year, 1935.

I believe that this is an heirloom in the making. It’s a weathervane that my (currently 28 year old) cousin, Emmy, made as a child. I hope they hold onto this one!

Uncle Jack told me that this (it is one of a pair) was a lamp that he and Aunt Ann got when they were newlyweds, with their grocery coupons. Apparently, grocery stores had a points system where if you shopped enough, you’d get to pick out an item. And these eagle lamps were their first purchase.

Ah, the infamous chicken coop. My mother told me that one day Nana and her mother, Grandmother Haines, came back from the flea market with this thing, and all the kids wondered what one earth she was going to do with it. Clever Nana! She added a glass top and made it a coffee table. It sat in my aunt and uncle’s living room for years and this is one that Emmy has HER name on!

Carpetbag Chair

01.12.2010

Aunt Ann said “Erin, come here, there’s something I want to show you…”

And it was this: A folding chair made from a carpet bag, we assume from a carpetbagger’s carpet bag. I’m sure Aunt Ann will be checking with the local museum to find out what historic relevance this has. But what an interesting find! I did some light online research, hoping to find that there was a particular time when carpet bags were often repurposed in this manner, to no avail. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the verdict on this piece.

a PERFECT fit

01.11.2010

My great-grandfather made this bookshelf quite a few years ago. My mother’s father then had them in his apartment. When he passed away two years ago, my mother’s younger sister took them and had it in her basement. She has two younger children, so it endured some crayon and marker marks, but it had been refinished in a cheaper black paint anyways, so it wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world when I got it anyway. I just moved into a new apartment, and painted my walls grey and lavender, my favorite colors. The black paint was chipping, and it just didn’t fit. It was too harsh. Then I realized how PERFECTLY it fit under the mirror in my foyer, so I found some leftover white and lavender paint and went to town. Since the foyer is small, I wanted to paint the back panel lavender, to match the walls. This helps the bookshelf kind of meld into the space. Now I see it as soon as I walk into my new home and I love it!

Submitted by Kate of The Swankest

Check out the before picture of Kate’s grandfather’s shelves!

Meant to be

01.03.2010

My design philosophy is to “live with the things I love”. Generally speaking, I buy only the home items that I doubt I can possibly live without.

Enter the antique fire extinguisher lamp I came across in a Craigslist Listing posted on Apartment Therapy. I was drawn to it from the moment saw it. Honestly, I didn’t NEED a new lamp, and I was trying to save money but… I thought I’d just email the seller and inquire. Most likely, I wouldn’t get it but I had to try. And if fate WANTED me to have the lamp, well then, who am I to argue?

Becoming the owner of that fire extinguisher lamp was my destiny. Not only was I the first to contact the seller (keep in mind, she was in CA and I live in NY), but she was willing to ship the lamp at no additional charge. She said that I’d opened the floodgates, and her email exploded with other would-be antique fire extinguisher lamp owners, but I had been promised the prize.

To seal the deal I also scored a lampshade from a colleague who just happened to be selling it right at that time. It fit just beautifully, I think the stars must have been aligned.

A pot for a haul

12.14.2009

Hylton, my first roommate, was moving out abruptly, and needed help. Being 12 years my senior, not to mention a guy, he felt compelled to offer me something in trade for helping him haul his couch down the 4 flights of stairs to his friend’s waiting car. After staring around his kitchen for a moment, Hylton hit upon it:

”I’ll trade you my blue LeCreuset braiser for your help getting the couch down the stairs”. He knew I could never say no, although I DID angle for the gorgeous red Dutch oven instead.

In the end, I earned one of my favorite pieces of kitchen equipment, which I’ve used for everything from frying pickles to making pasta sauce to roasting chicken. And someday when I have kids, when they see it, I’ll tell them about the time Mommy carried a couch down some stairs in return for her pretty blue pot.

Contributes by Johanna of Pretty Girls Use Knives.

Johanna’s kitchen pots get a pretty good workout as they cook up such delicious dishes as her quinoa salad (which I’m obsessed with!). Today on Pretty Girls Use Knives you can read about the pumpkin risotto Johanna made using her pretty blue pot.

The drum in the dumpster

12.07.2009

This red drum holds a special place in my heart for many reasons. For one, red is the color of love and I just happened to spot this drum on one romantic evening with my boyfriend. I believe it was a chilly, drizzly, autumn night and we were making our way back home from a great jazz show on the Lower East Side. Now, I’m not a frequent dumpster diver, but an avid explorer for sure and as we turned the corner this night, I caught a glimpse of something red and shiny just peeking out of the top of the piles of trash. The tiny water droplets from the sky were encouraging it’s own beat on the drum. It was an ever so slight, thud, thud, thud atop the drum. My curiosity took hold of me and I grabbed the side of the dumpster and hoisted myself up. It was all wet and smelly in there, but I didn’t care. “What a great red drum!” I said. “I can’t let this go to waste. It’s too….pretty!” In an absolute act of chivalry my boyfriend jumped in and grabbed the drum for me and proceeded to lug it up to my 5th floor walk up apartment. (I’m convinced he was trying to impress me. It worked.) We noticed a few of the legs were broken on the drum and assumed some up and coming musician had simply taped them back on for the time being. What perseverance!

The drum sat, slightly wobbly in my living room for a few months, and like my current relationship, I soon realized something had to change. Neither a drum nor a relationship can stand on shaky legs. Once I removed the legs completely and let the base of the drum stand firmly on its own, it proved to be a very reliable side table in my living room. It’s a nice resting spot for a myriad of magazines, a candle, and the basis for a good conversation starter. I have remained friends with my ex-boyfriend and he, like my shiny red drum, will always remind me of my sentimental salvage.

Contributed by Lauren Heath.

“The Table My Father Built”

12.02.2009

My boyfriend and I recently moved from a 1000 sq ft loft to a 750 sq ft parlor floor brownstone apartment. We had to purge. As antique lovers and collectors whose possessions are rendered (albeit by ourselves) priceless, you might imagine this was insanely difficult for us. Think “Sophie’s Choice”.

When we moved in to our loft two years ago, the prospect of having enough room for a dining table (in New York City!) really excited us. How incredibly fortunate we were to learn that my dad had been keeping this dining table in storage for the last fifteen years. Built by my father, Peter Fleishman, this table had lived up until now only in my memories of little girlhood in our old apartment on West 86^th Street.

He recalls: “The solid maple table top and trestle legs [damaged and have since gone to recycling, now replaced by table bases purchased from a restaurant supply store] were shaker inspired. There was also a ‘shaker’ cradle, modeled on the shaker boxes with cherry sides and maple bands, copper rivets and all. It hung from the ceiling and swung gently so Lily wouldn’t get sick while she slept. There is no such thing as a shaker cradle, you can figure out why. The table is an enlarged similar shape, colored with old fashioned aniline dyes and French polish in the traditional manner that feels good.”

In searching for our new apartment, the thought of sentencing our table to another storage term pained me. New York City real estate be damned, we were taking it with us!

Contributed by Lily Fleishman.

Send in your Sentimental Salvage stories

12.01.2009

via ~Oryctes~'s Flickr photostream

I know we’ve only just met, but I’d love to hear from you! Do you have any Sentimental Salvage stories (like Caroline’s from Monday)? What have you salvaged from the street, from a dumpster, from your parents house… and repurposed, upcycled, or just simply showcase in your own home? Why is it special or meaningful? Send me a picture and 150 words (or less) describing what you did, how you did it, and why it’s important to you. I can’t wait to read and post your Sentimental Salvage stories! Email me at salvagedgrace@gmail.com.

Salvaged Grace

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