FROM MACHINE SHOP TO DINING ROOM

 
     I just adore talented and creative people.  I've encountered a share of such people since embarking on this renovation project.  One of these persons is James.  We stumbled upon James Schmidt's work while searching online for antique farm tables.  Instead of dealing in antique furniture, James works with reclaimed antique wood and creates one-of-a-kind heirlooms.

    Let me take you back to our trip to Chicago, via a variety of salvage spots.  One of the treasures with which we returned was vintage machine shop table legs we discovered in Indiana.

Over 100 pounds of green painted iron used in a factory in the early 1900's.

We thought a wooden table top on this base might make for a unique piece. This is where James comes in.

    As it turns out, JDS Antique Wood is no more than 12 miles down the road from our current home on Warren Road.  We must have past it dozens of times and, though intrigued by the sign, I never had cause or took time to stop.  We arrived at his workshop with an idea, and James turned early 1900 floor joists reclaimed from a former home on route 301, ironically only 2 miles from Hawthorne Avenue, into a wonderful bread board end table top.  

 

We just love it!  Thanks James!

Please take a peak at what James can do.

EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK

    Wallace and I opted for a break today and made a road trip to Covesville, Virginia to what I will from now on refer to as my FAVORITE antiquing spot.  I thought fondly of my mother-in-law as I know how much she would have adored just "banging around" (which is what she used to call shopping with no real purchase in mind).   (I love you B)

    Our loaded down Ford today reminds me of an antiquing adventure Wallace and I went on with his parents 

25 years ago.  

We 4 came the 1 1/2 hours home in the Oldsmobile station wagon ...

Charlie driving, me sitting on Wallace's lap (newlyweds), 

and B lying in the rear happily snuggled up next to a couple of painted benches and a blanket chest.

    We, however, were not just "banging around."  I was on a mission in search of an antique twin bed for my daughter's new bedroom.  Well guess what!?!  We had enormous success.    I found not only an antique rope bed (already set up with L-brackets on the side rails), but also assorted Windsor and plank-bottom chairs (late 1700's & early 1800's) for the dining room, an early 1900's Bar Harbor wicker rocker ( back when wicker was really wicker, not rattan, rolled paper, or plastic clad aluminum) and an old painted industrial boot rack.  If that is not grand enough....we got everything for less than Wallace and I we paid for a small pine table and jelly cupboard back in 1987.  Yay us!

Bolt covers on the rope bed

Blue painted table - 1800's

Chairs galore!


Oh yes, I mustn't forget the leather-topped Hepplewhite desk and antique ice cream parlor chair (future plant stand)!