Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Best Seat in the House

When Gram Forsberg passed away a while back, Mr.4444, his family, and I took on the job of emptying out her house in order to prepare it for the real estate market. We moved all of the bedroom and livingroom furniture out, loading some of it for charity, some of it to come home with us. About the time that the trailer was almost full to bursting, I decided to take a look in the cellar.

Like Auntie Em's, Gram's cellar door had its entry at ground level, on the side of the house. I ducked down (they sure were short in the old days!) and took a peek around. In the midst of a lot of junk, five old, wooden kitchen chairs called out to me, "Please, don't leave us here! Even though we're quite old, we've still got a lot of use left in us!" I went outside and started to sweet-talk Mr. 4444 into adding more to the trailer. "No! Absolutely not! There is no more room." "Pleeease," I begged. They won't take up much space!" Thinking I would give up, he said, "Fine. If you can find a place for them, then you go get them and put them on the trailer." Of course, stubborn as I am, I did. I grabbed the dusty, white chairs and found homes for them with the rest of the stuff.

Knowing my sister in law loved antiques, I earmarked two of the chairs for her, and three of them for me. I had a plan for my chairs. At school, I had often seen art displays of chairs that students had painted; they were amazing. Since I do have talent, but not as a painter, I immediately called my cousin's wife, Tama, when I got home. "Tama," I said, "I've got a proposition for you." Now, Tama is an artist and an art teacher in a middle school, so I had a feeling she would be interested in my idea. I told her I had two antique chairs and that I would give her one to keep if she would paint the other one for me. It took a few months, but Tama and I brainstormed, and here is the result.
Tama first painted the chair, then decopaged the photos on it, followed it up with more layers of decopage, paint, glitter, and voila! This chair is a beautiful piece of artwork. It probably had quite a history before I rescued it; it was used in Copper Country of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, most likely during the 1930's-1940's. I probably could have gotten some money for it at a flea market as an antique, but today it is a priceless heirloom, a piece of our history with its many treasured memories where everyone can see them. If my house burned down (God forbid), the loss of this chair would be great. I don't treasure many "things," but this chair is one that I do value a great deal.
What "thing" do you treasure most in your house? I would love to see a photo or read about it in your blog. If you like, use Mr. Linky below to lead us to it. I hope to hear from you...

2 comments:

  1. This is a fabulous chair!
    I'm thinking...
    what is a very special thing?
    hmmmmmm

    ReplyDelete
  2. I tried out your Mr. Linky thing... in the one I linked there is a pic of my fav stuffed companion, which I coincidentally just blogged about yesterday!

    ReplyDelete

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