Making Something Old New Again

I came upon this sweet wire-back chair at the St. Lambert United Church Antique and Rummage sale last summer. This sale has been happening each May for almost 50 years, and it remains one of the few unchanged things about my hometown. As long as I can remember, the volunteers have been labelling the tea room sandwich baggies (i.e., Tuna, Ham, Egg) in 24 point Times New Roman font. This year and last, the gentleman wearing the security badge was the 75 year old named Ed, and the fella who sold me my tomato plants two summers ago and made me laugh non-stop was back again for more (as was I). Many of the faces I see there are what I call "St. Lambert faces" - people I didn't know by name, but saw at this sale every year since I was a kid. On my first time back at this sale after having lived away for many years, I was struck by how these faces had aged; then struck immediately by the knowledge that if they'd gotten older, so had I. The hard work and camaraderie, the sense of community - and did I mention the Lazy Daisy cakes for sale at the Country Kitchen nook off the main hall? - all of this is heartwarming and reassuring to me.

But, I digress. I'm here to write about that chair. I paid $7.00 for it (after hesitating a few minutes, yes, but after that I never regretted it). I rather liked the pink corduroy seat cover, but as it had a bit of paint on it, I knew it had to go. I brought it home and, as I am wont to do, tried a couple of different 'fat quarter' fabric samples on it. I hemmed and hawed, took pictures, then hemmed and hawed some more. Finally, I borrowed a staple gun from my friend and got the job done. I couldn't like it more. Even better, I saw an identical chair (with different fabric) in a Westmount vintage store window for $75.00. Sometimes my ideas are so good I just don't know what to do with them all...

I genuinely like salvaging old pieces of furniture. Sometimes they're not terribly practical - say an old bureau with narrow, sticky drawers - but time after time I have found pieces that fix up beautifully. I don't always feel like dedicating the elbow grease, but when I do it pays off with something unique and often pretty striking. And unique! Who else has this exact chair, or a soft green bureau with lily of the valley painted on the top and sides, or a robin's egg blue kitchen hutch? Nobody, that's who. And another plus is that in most cases, this stuff would have ended up as landfill. How someone didn't see the possibility in these pieces, I'll never know. Admittedly they're not everyone's cup of tea, and not to say I wouldn't appreciate some fine new piece now and then, but overall, this just works for me.