Welcome to our "antique room," the second room off our living room hub. This little room was at one time the master bedroom. Interestingly, it has no closet, unless the little furnace room to the left as you enter served as a closet at some point.

When the previous owners built on a new kitchen addition in the 1980's, the old kitchen became the new master bedroom, and this room subsequently became "Bea's Antique Room." For now I want to keep it in that tradition - as a sort of multi-function room - a reading/sitting/sewing (if I ever get a sewing machine and learn how to use it)/dining/guest/exercise room. The room has worn a number of looks since we moved here five years ago. It has served mainly as our spillover dining room at Christmas Eve family dinners and as our exercise room in the winter, especially after Benny's heart surgery in 2006.

For a while we kept a nice little Duncan Phyffe style drop-leaf dining room table with a silverware drawer in the room. Shellie, our friend and proprietor of Shellie's cafe, bought that for Benny at an restaurant auction in Monticiello as a thank you for providing a truck and trailer for hauling restaurant equipment. It didn't take much of a foot print, and after Christmas it swapped places with the treadmill hidden in the corner so that Benny could walk and watch TV in the living room at the same time. Not too visible in these pictures is Benny's aunt's old zinc-top kitchen cabinet. I also added a washstand and a cherry loveseat from Leaping Leopard Antiques to complete the arrangement. It was lovely.

 

2008	2009
	This lovely antique rug came from my friend Marilyn. Since the top had faded, I simply turned it over. It displays very well.

Annabelle Hydrangeas, 2009 - bedroom west view
The tall window (above) used to overlook a scraggly (and I'm sure very old) hedge. I wanted to look out and see a spray of mophead hydrangeas through the lace curtain. My friend Marilyn had told me about Annabelle Hydrangeas and I spent a couple of summers trying to find some. At the time they were not being sold locally. The most affordable ones I could find online were from a greenhouse in Georgia. I went on their waiting list. Benny hitched his tractor to the old bush and pulled it out, and I prepared the soil for planting. However that summer Georgia had a drought and then it became too late to plant them. The next spring the nursery didn't have any, so they refunded my money. Then my friend Marilyn called and told me that the local farm store had just gotten some Annabelle Hydrangeas! I rushed to Rural King and bought three. About a month later I bought another to plant outside the Summer Kitchen Window when my daughter Bonnie and I went to the local farmer's market. The Annabelles did really well this summer - despite the roofers!

2005	2006
Our friend and boarder Mark Zerbes refinished the hardwood floor in this room while Benny was in the hospital for open heart surgery in 2006.	At my friend Marilyn's suggestion, I used lace curtains in the room to complete the antique look.

 

 

 

But then the furniture started rolling in ... A rocking chair that Benny came by while helping his niece ready a property to sell, a nice old 1930's desk with bakelite handles that didn't move at our garage sales, and an old twin-size poster bed from his mother's basement. So now this little room is pretty full. But these pieces have all been restored and refinished and we need a place to lovingly preserve them until we find more permanent homes. Perhaps when we sell off a few pieces, we can return the room to its former simplicty - but they're so pretty I will hate to see them go! However, go they must, because I want to add a chiffarobe (for as long as this room remains a bedroom, that is). I think this room's future may be as a bathroom, since the only bathroom in the main house is now through the master bedroom. However that task may fall to future owners ... we shall see. :) Part of the beauty of owning an old house is that it is never finished and the possibilities are endless.

	door to the furnace room and one of my Aunt Firma Duchene Phillip's Paintings
Antique or vintage ceiling light fixture
Remember the little metal beaded key chains like the one around the elephant in the picture to the right? Well the above light fixture uses chains like these to suspend itself from the ceiling! So it isn't as stationary as it looks.
More Goodwill and Flea Market Finds. Goodwill is a great place to get inexpensive throw pillows. I try to buy cotton (launderable ones) that I can use to display my grandmother's and mother-in-law's quilted, crocheted, and needle-point pillow covers. But the pillow in the wooden bowl is just too cute to cover.