Show me your antique/hand me down furniture!

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I love older solid pieces. Something with personality or a story, the more worn the better. Doesn’t have to be expensive or curated - I mean lovely Facebook market place finds, stuff from boot fairs or from your nans house. I currently don’t have much! Starting from scratch and aiming to furnish each room as I go so would love to see what others have done.

The former Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, had a house in Worcestershire. Eventually, after his death there was a sale of his furniture and general goods.
My mum attended the sale because she wanted a big carved oak chest. She bought it but the lot included a large overmantel.
This was far too big to use, so all through my childhood it stayed in an outhouse, occasionally getting flooded.
When DH and I moved to a house which could accommodate it she gave it too me and though it was too large to act as an overmantel we thought it was a very decorative set of shelves, once we had cleaned off all the dried mud from the flooding.
It holds lots of bits of china etc, and is always known as ‘The Baldwin Shelves’.

Shelves here

@TrickyD love them ! And fab story

It is really depressing how little interest there now is in antique furniture. Wonderful things which will outlast their owners and still look good are fetching very little at auction. The only new things we have ever bought new are beds and electrical goods, and everything else has been bought from dealers or at auction. I cherish the Victorian sofa my mother bought us as a wedding present over 50 years ago and the regency sideboard we found in a junk shop, and many other things which still give us enormous pleasure. I find modern interiors very bland and boring , so I say go for it get the bargains now and enjoy them.

This is a chest of drawers with not all that much merit (although, dino). I did buy it from an auction for £30 though and when I got it home found a gokd bracelet behind a drawer worth £250.

Unexpected antique bonus!

Just cleared a family house and a charity told us they couln't take any old brown Victorian furniture as noone wants it anymore. It's seems such a shame to junk it as it's really solid stuff - that has survived this long through different owners and history and could last many more years. Plus I bet it will eventurally come back into fashion. After all, thirty years ago noone wanted mid-century modern.

I have lots of old brown furniture via grandparent/parents. As long as entire room is not all dark wood (unless you live in an Elizabethan cottage) , it looks great and is vey well made.

We love old furniture, and have acquired it from various places - relatives and friends chucking it or downsizing (or dying!), second hand shops, we've even forked out a couple of times for an antique.
There used to be a furniture place at Barrington Court (NT property) - Stuart Interiors - that sold real old pieces and also made wonderful reproductions - it was like going to a stately home with price labels on everything - bit too pricey for us but great fun to look around.
My father used to buy big old houses and rent them out as furnished flats using second hand furniture - this was the 1950s when no-one wanted Victorian stuff. The painting below was from one of the flats. The chest of drawers we bought years back - it's a Chinese medicine cupboard. The deep drawers are each divided lengthways into 3 sections. The shop said they could have sold it easily if the drawers were the right size for CDs, but they are a little too small! They exactly hold loo rolls however and it's really handy for lots of odds and ends. (DH has a map of it with xyz co-ordinates so you don't have to open every drawer to find stuff 😁)

I actually think dark brown wood is already back in? Walnut stain and mahogany are all over Pinterest - think the devol dairy table!

Love all these stories

I have a G-Plan coffee table in my front room, it’s a Victorian house and doesn’t go with my period decor but I will never get rid of it as it was my Nan’s and it’s dear to me.

When I moved in here I literally had a few sticks of furniture as had been living in a studio apartment for several years and there was no room for anything other than basics ! But the previous owner of my new place, super nice guy, told me the elderly next door neighbours were leaving and not coming back, and they were offering some of their furniture, so had a look - took these armchairs which are super comfy plus the more formal ones in a set with the three seater. And a very good price ! The sideboard a friend found in a second hand shop (of which there are many, as the old fashioned houses disappear, and people don't have the room / taste for the classic style any more) The wood is amazing (oak?) and will likely last for ever !
I am going to re-cover the squishy chairs with a fabric, possibly a dark green to tone with the wallpaper feature.....also very easy to get done to a super high standard here. Eventually ! My other bits and pieces come from Ikea 😬

It is very environmentally very sound to recycle sound furniture. So, you are all doing the right thing. Now its time to educate people. You have sound, well made and longlasting and (usually) aesthetically pleasing things around you!