When we were in Savannah for our wedding - the afternoon we were married actually - we spent a couple of delicious hours browsing one of our very favorite antique stores, Alex Raskin Antiques. If you are ever in Savannah, you absolutely must go! It's in a historic mansion on the corner of one of their beautiful garden squares. The entire building is crammed full of antique furniture, some of it stacked one piece on top of the other. And it's all in a state of picturesque decay - the phrase "faded grandeur" comes immediately to mind - and that's just about my favorite aesthetic.
Naturally, it being our wedding day, we had the perfect excuse to succumb to a lovely piece or two. We chose an early nineteenth century mahogany tall chest, with a beautiful shell inlay and original ornate brass hardware. The wood is somewhat faded so it doesn't have that burgundy color that mahogany usually does.
It's going in our bedroom beside the glass wall. We desperately need more drawer space for clothes and I love the idea of having something we bought on our wedding day in our bedroom and using it every day. (Full disclosure: we first saw the chest nearly two years ago on a Valentine's Day trip to Savannah, really liked it them but worried that it was too splurgy.)
We also bought a very large eighteenth century walnut French Provincial armoire to go on the right side of the fireplace (the grand piano is on the left). We liked its simple lines and its workhorse stature. Oh, the quantity of files, papers and hopefully printer/fax/scanner that it will store!
The color in the second photo is more representative - no reddish tones. There was another storage piece that we really like but no matter how many times we measured and no matter how many ways we mentally rearranged our furniture, we decided we just don't have the space for. If only my stepdaughter's bedroom was a foot bigger!
Shifting gears, in November I caved and ordered the Turned Wood Bistro Table from West Elm. It's totally unlike me, because I really can't stand most mass produced wood furniture, but I really wanted at least one round table in the red brick building and was having a difficult time finding anything round and antique but also unusual.
I really like that the table has a modern, sculptural quality, without feeling harsh. The curviness works well with much of the rest of the house and I like the warmth and light hue of the unfinished mango wood, as a break from dark wood. The purchase was far from hassle free, though. The table comes in two pieces and they're supposed to send bolts and washers to secure the top to the base. These were not included in my package and it has literally taken them almost two months to send the eight missing pieces. That's a long time to wait while using (and cursing) a rickety table. In the end, the table's not an heirloom but for the time being it serves its purpose as an unexpected and fun piece.
My most recent purchase was at auction yesterday. It's a silvered brass fender for our fireplace:
A bit of a splurge (who really *needs* a fireplace fender?), but hopefully a detail that will make our frequent fires even more beautiful and the hearth look more finished.
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