Tuesday 1 May 2012

Krista Illies, Canadian Picker

Greetings all! Hope everyone is off to a good week!

My weekend ended up being much busier than I thought it would be, but we got to visit lots with our families, which was great.  An unexpected highlight came after dinner with MLo's family on Saturday, when I found what I considered to be buried treasure!

After dinner was over and it was time to head back downtown, Hazel-a close friend of the family-suggested Marc and I swing by to see if he wanted her old sewing machine.

Off we went and within minutes Hazel was giving us the grand tour of her little bungalow.

Everywhere we turned our eyes widened and jaws dropped-the very sight of sideboards, old toys, lamps, clocks, and more made us feel like we were on Canadian Pickers or Cash & Cari!

Seeing all of this and having a glimpse into Hazel's very full life was really interesting, but the one thing that made me stop in my tracks was... wait for it... a vintage telephone table!!!


Isn't she pretty?!

Once I spotted it, I ran right into the next room to share my discovery with she and Marc (who knew the exact degree of my excitement), and God lover her, Hazel immediately told me to take it home!

At first I said I couldn't possibly, but when she told me she had no luck trying to pawn it off on her own family, and that it was literally collecting dust, I seized the opportunity and took her up on this generous offer!

Those who have followed NofW since the beginning know that I've had a major crush on telephone tables, also know as gossip benches, for quite a long time.

Check out my earlier post about them here

Sadly, our apartment hasn't magically doubled in size since that post, so we're going to have to do a little shuffling around in both the living room and entry way to see where this piece would fit best.

I'll also have to freshen it up with a light makeover, but nonetheless, I'm absolutely thrilled to have my very own telephone table, years before ever I thought I would, and I owe Hazel a huge THANK YOU!!! XO

Have you ever received a surprise hand-me-down like this? What's your experience been like mixing vintage and modern pieces? Leave a comment and tell me all about it!

KLI | NofW

7 comments:

Kristen said...

Love it!! Are you going to leave it as-is or refinish it somehow?

Adding the finishing touch said...

I absolutely love it! It's so YOU! We have a couple old pieces in our home that we / more me, adore!

Caitie said...

OMG, this thing is a beaut! Congrats on your awesome find!! God love Hazel. :)

Shannon @ Hoopla said...

Sweet find! And free, which makes it that much better! P.S. I love the name Hazel :)

Anonymous said...

are you going to get a landline and a vintage phone?

Krista Illies said...

Thanks everyone for the feedback!!

I'm planning on simply recovering the seat and Marc will likely tighten up the frame. The walnut works perfectly with the rest of our wood, and the floral pattern of the back keeps it nice and casual, so it's just about perfect!

And yes, the fact that it was free is the icing on the cake!

K xo

EJS said...

Can i do a phto shoot of you and yr new sexy gossip bench when it's all done up?