Antiques

Last year when my daughter moved away to college, she took her bedroom furniture with her. I needed to get a new bed to put in her room so she'd have a place to sleep whenever she comes home. I found out that my parents had this old iron bed and an old dresser that had been my grandmothers when my mother was a little girl. They just had it in their storage shed and said that I could have it if I wanted it. I love having things that belonged to my grandparents, so I jumped at the chance to get them. However, the bed was rusted, so we had to get it sandblasted and then we painted it. I was very pleased with how it turned out. The old dresser was in bad shape, so my dad stripped the old finish off and painted it to match the bed. After getting those two items, it made me want to find other things for this bedroom and make it into a 1930's/1940's room because that was when my mother was growing up and they had this furniture. In our garage, I found the little nightstand which had been my husband's grandmother's, so we painted it to match the bed and dresser. And then at a flea market, I found this cool white lamp from that time period. The vase on the nightstand is a replica of an old-time lantern -- I found that at an antique shop in Mentone, Alabama. At the bottom of the nightstand there is something that looks like the old-timey telephones. It is actually just a music box I got at Helen, Georgia, but I thought it would fit nicely in this room. The quilt on the bed is not from that time period, but I bought it new from Linens and Things because I thought it was so pretty and would be colors my daughter would like.

On the dresser you can see some white crocheted pieces -- one was made by my other grandmother and my aunt made me two more to match that one since my grandmother is no longer living. See the candle on the dresser? It is called a "Courting Candle" and was used as a timer. When a young man went to court a young lady, it was proper for them to visit in the parlor for the evening. The young lady's father would light the candle and set the height of the flame above the spirals. When the flame burned down to the candleholder it was time for the young man to leave. If the young man was rich and showed some promise dad would raise the candle to give him more time. If he was a shady looking character dad would lower the candle and cut his time in half. My husband got this in Jonesboro, Georgia during a "Gone With the Wind" tour.
Now, I am very proud of my 1930/1940 room. I've got stuff from both of my sets of grandparents, something from my husband's grandmother, and something from my aunt. I'm sure HGTV would say it's too much of a "granny" room, but to me it is special to have things in my house that were once my grandparent's.