Furniture of the House, Part 2

When we bought the house at 134 Caroline Avenue in 1974, there were some odd bits of furniture that came along. Others we added over the years, from various sources.

The largest is the cabinet in the living room. It was in the basement and painted old-fashioned-kitchen green, pink and cream. It is quite old, as you can tell by the dovetailing and lack of nails. We started stripping it, because from the inside the wood looked fine and solid. It turned out to be a huge job, and with two little kids running around, not one I could get to very easily. But Fortune (and Marek) sent us a young Polish student to stay for a few weeks, and we employed him as a stripper. It was gunky work, and the undercoat was black, but finally it came clean. I oiled it; Neil adjusted the shelves (including cutting out a section at the back) and it has served as our music cupboard ever since. It went to France with us (second stage) and returned in good shape. Music technology has changed since the 1970s, but it still holds our vinyl LPs, some 45s, cassettes and CDs, as well as the CD player I won in a raffle back in the 1980s, and the radio tuner, of course.

The other very visible item that came with the house was a wooden trunk, which has held our board games for decades. It did not need stripping, and is lovely old wood. We think it was a tradesman’s tool box, because there are grooves and inset open drawers. There was a key, and it fit into a slot on the top, which was originally covered with a leather patch. The initials “PP” are on the side near the handles. The lid split at the hinges back in France, so opening and shutting it is not simple, because the lid is so heavy. Once, in France, a mouse died under the trunk, on the heated floor!

Another trunk that came with the house is a simple green one that I use for storing craft supplies (mostly antique now) under my sewing desk. Its top is split, too.

One of the first pieces we added was the oak buffet. I bought it at a second-hand store in Hintonburg and stripped the dark old finish. I remember it being easy to work with, since it was so square and such hard wood. It has served as a bar cabinet and and holds table linens and good silver. Now it holds some of my bell collection above the mirror.

The china cabinet was another purchase, this time from an antique shop in the Glebe. I love its oak and glass, and it does do a fine job of displaying our “good” china and glassware. It travelled to France and back, and had one move there, too, with no disasters.

I bought the other cabinet (now in the large bedroom on the second floor) at an Ottawa South antique store, run by a man we knew. It has been a bar and a linen chest, and it held up a very large mirror for quite a while, both in France and at home. It had a shelf, but it seems to have gone missing. The house in Ferney had lower ceilings, so the mirror could not hang above the cabinet, but had to rest on it. The mirror was bought new, back in the 1980s, at a furniture store that briefly occupied the location where St Vincent is now. It has been in the upstairs bathroom for several years now.

Finally, the two hall seats have stories of their own. The small one, a settee, came with the cottage at Farren Lake and we used it there for a while, but replaced it with the large wicker couch from Bayfield. Then it sat on the front porch on Caroline. I tried stripping it, but it was stubborn and I ended up painting it white.  We left it behind when we went to France, but when we came back, 8 years later, we found it—worse for wear—in the back yard. Its stubbornness had saved it, I suppose. Finally, I stripped it properly, but discovered that it was made of many pieces of very hard wood. It was like a jigsaw puzzle! Craig attempted to put it together, but in the end, I sent it to a professional furniture restorer, who brought it back to life.

The tall hall seat was found at a flea market by our friends John and Dorothy Kralt. When they got it home they realized they didn’t really have a hall for it to inhabit, so they passed it on to us. It has never been repaired or refinished, and does an admirable job of holding hats, umbrellas, guest coats and outgoing mail, and whatever else comes by. We had hallways for it to grace in France as well.