Treasured Antique Furniture Pieces

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Explore our home's three most treasured antique furniture pieces and gain insight into why they mean so much to us.

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I've got a treat for you today! This installment of the Lifestyle of Love is all about collections. It is hosted by my friend, Cindy, from County Road 407.

If you are stopping by from Lora at Lora Bloomquist, welcome! Aren't Lora's vintage lockers gorgeous?

Treasured Antique Furniture Pieces

Are you a fan of antique furniture pieces? Do you love to bring classic, timeless beauty into your home with older-looking home accessories and furnishings? If so, then treasure hunting for the perfect heirloom item can be an exciting adventure. Picking out the right antiques that match your budget and taste requires patience – it’s not something you can rush through. But once you find the perfect piece, it's like finding a hidden gem! Today, I am sharing some tips on how we selected our treasured antique furniture that add an elegant touch of character to our home décor.

winter mantel with greenery and deer

While we have several antique furniture pieces, accessories, and rugs, I will be sharing three treasured antique furniture pieces in our home.

study dressed for christmas

We have been married for 32 years and have enjoyed collecting for our home through the years. We are strong believers in holding out for the perfect piece.

A Little Backstory

We believe in quality. As a result, the dining room in our last home sat empty for almost 8 years before we could afford to purchase the perfect dining room suite for the space. Our last home was a 1970s ranch that we completely remodeled. It was a definite labor of love and took many years. We lived there for 10 years before building our current home. We have been in this house for 19 years.

Our 1970s ranch had the typical layout with a front living room and dining room. We turned the formal dining room into a home office with a built-in bookcase. The living room became a large dining space. We even took out the wall that divided it from the casual family room. It created more of an open look.

Christmas dining room using blues along with traditional reds by Our Southern Home
Previous Dining Room Furniture

As a result, that 8-year wait for a dining room suit produced an heirloom solid mahogany set complete with a table that would seat up to 12! The space was large enough to accommodate the table with all of its leaves.

Needless to say, the dining room in our current home did not accommodate that table in its complete length. The leaves stayed under the guest bed.

This brings us to the story of the first treasured antique piece that I want to share with you.

Grandparent's Pine Armoire

This piece was in my husband's grandparent's homestead that was in Chester, SC. In recent years, the family had decided that the home needed to be torn down. It was on his Aunt's land. Her immediate family went in and took all of the trim, mantels, and doors that they wanted. This massive armoire was left. Massive in that it is 9 feet tall and 6 feet wide. No one in the family really wanted it. It weighs a ton, plus you would have to have at least 10-foot ceilings to accommodate it.

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We knew that it would work in our home. We were just not sure of the exact space.

We toyed with the family room, the guest room, the dining room, and even the upstairs landing. We were really stupid to even consider upstairs. It's a beast.

We coordinated the pick up of the armoire with the demolition of the house. They removed the wall where the armoire was built to bring it out of the house on a front-end loader. It was then maneuvered onto a trailer that we pulled behind our truck.

Several men then helped to slide it off the trailer into our garage when we got home.

To look at it in the garage was truly overwhelming. As a result, it sat in there for 2 years begging to be brought back to life. It needed to be stripped and well as damage repaired.

Enter the Covid Pandemic. Classes at Clemson University were now all online. Ashlyn decided to move back home during this. Woods stayed in their campus apartment that they shared with 2 other roommates. To pass all of that time at home during the lockdown, we completed many home and yard projects. We paid Ashlyn to do lots of things. One was restoring the armoire. Bless her heart. She painstakingly stripped and sanded that piece. She put so many hours into it and did an amazing job. She wore masks and protective eyewear.

When she started coming a long way in the process, I started researching and contacting local antique furniture restoration craftsmen. I contacted 2. One man was recommended by a friend on Facebook. One I found on my own through Google. The first man wanted to take the piece to his workshop. He wanted us to bring it. Ummm….NO! Plus he ended up being double the price of the next man.

The next man would do it here in our garage. He was absolutely wonderful and a fraction of the price of the other man. He went to Lowes and purchased the wood he would need for the project. He gave us the receipt and we reimbursed him. He did an amazing job.

What Was Done

  • Replace wood on 3 bottom panels
  • Dipped and restored hinges
  • Made new upper corbels to replace missing ones
  • Adding shelving to the interior (it only had hanging rods for clothing)

He completed all of the above in one day! We were overjoyed!

The next thing that needed to be done was to sell our dining room furniture to accommodate this piece. This was really a hard thing to do in that we really loved this set. We saved and waited so long to purchase it. It went to a wonderful family that drove all the way from Tennessee. They lived on a horse farm. He picked it up in a very long horse trailer. We helped him load it. Everything was wrapped and secured very well.

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We had to hire a moving company to move the armoire out of the garage, up the front steps, and into the dining room. It took 6 men even with dollies to do the task. It took them a while. It was expensive but worth it.

I then took the money from the sale of that suite and purchased a more casual dining room table and chairs that would work well with the more casual armoire.

We are so happy with the casually elegant look that the dining room now has. The armoire is definitely a showstopper. It is still in an unfinished state. We like the unfinished look. I do need to try to stain the lower-replaced panels to blend with the original wood. Then I need to seal it.

I will say that I have regrets about our dining room table and want to replace it. My hubby is like NO! Back when we purchased it, we didn't entertain much in here. We thought that it would be plenty big. Now that we are hosting regular Sunday lunches, we need more space. I'd like to eventually sell this table and buy one a bit larger. The chairs would stay the same.

We are so very proud of the armoire and the family history behind it. I will say that Ashlyn has called dibs on it for inheritance. She says she put too much work into it not to get it. Ha, ha!

Do you see the aqua piece holding the cutting boards? That is made from one of the front panels of the armoire. I saved it. I lightly sanded any peeling paint and sealed it. We now have a little piece left of what it looked like from the beginning.

The next 2 pieces that I am sharing were purchases.

Antique German Painted Armoire

armoire with new art work

We purchased this armoire as an antique over 25 years ago while in Southport, NC. If you are new here, we spend a lot of time in the Southport area because we share a family beach cottage.

armoire and wall art
guest bedroom with white walls

This armoire was a very unexpected find. We immediately fell in love with it. We wanted it for our master bedroom in our previous ranch home. We originally had a small box TV in it. I can't believe we'd lay in bed and watched TV on that small TV. My eyes must have been much better back then! And TVs have also come a very long way.

This armoire brought about the huge task of trying to figure out how in the world we'd get it back home over 5 hours away.

We had a Chevrolet Blazer back then. We had to take it to a local auto shop and had a hitch installed. We then rented a UHaul to attach to the hitch. It was so very worth it.

It found a new home in the guest room when we moved here. It is perhaps my favorite antique in our home.

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I did a little research on it based on what I remember from the purchase. It is a handpainted German piece with a Scandinavian influence.

I found this one that is so similar online that sold for $8,285! I think we paid $1200 for it back in the day. See the similar piece HERE. This piece dates back to 1821. Ours looks just like it inside.

Antique Hutch

kitchen dining area

We do not know the history behind this piece. We used to love to go away one weekend in the fall to a bed and breakfast. This particular year, we went to Chapel Hill, NC. We picked this piece up while visiting there. It was just the two of us. We had the same, Chevrolet Blazer. We were able to fold the seats down and slide the piece in the back. 

It was in our eat-in kitchen on our 70s ranch. We really enjoy this piece. I wish we knew more about its history. If you know, please share it with me in the comments. 

hutch

The breakfast room in this house had the perfect recessed wall to fit it. It is a wonderful piece with ample storage underneath. 

I have cookbooks on the very bottom shelf. The upper shelf holds placemats, a paper napkin collection, and bread baskets. 

hutch

We've had many years of enjoyment from it. 

Overall, antiques can be so much more than just furniture. They can evoke memories, preserve history, and honor tradition. We have seen first-hand the deep sentiment that comes with each antique piece in our home, and we will pass them down to our children. We can’t help but feel thankful for all the comfort and joy that these pieces bring into our home. There is something special about having antique furniture in your own home. While our home is not full of antique furniture, we have taken our time to purchase each and every piece with thought and care. It has been a journey, not a sprint. A lot of our finds have a story behind them. It may not be that they are of extreme value, but the memory behind the find. It may have been a weekend away or just a fun thrifting afternoon. Everyone has their one token piece that speaks to their soul; Do you have antiques that are special to you? Share your stories with us in the comments! We’d love to hear them!

Up next is Rachel from The Ponds Farmhouse. Rachel is a fellow Carolina girl. You are going to really enjoy seeing her favorite antique pieces in her modern farmhouse.

Check out the other fabulous antiques in today's tour!

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collage of antique furniture
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Christy has been creating content for Our Southern Home since 2012. She has been featured in numerous print and online publications. Her classic, eclectic design approach spans her home and fashion style. Christy has a way of mixing store-bought with thrift store, antique and vintage finds. As a recent empty nester, she is having fun navigating this new stage of life. Read more about Christy HERE. Be sure to subscribe below. You can also contact me HERE.

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7 Comments

  1. Your antique pieces are beautiful, Christy, and it was so fun hearing the stories of how you got them and what you did to them. Yes, they become a part of our home and our families, indeed!

  2. Christy, I remember during Covid when you brought in your armoire. It is so gorgeous and a once in a lifetime family piece. I love how it dominates the décor in your dining room. The Scandinavian piece is so dramatic, beautiful. You have the ceilings and large rooms to accommodate all these gorgeous pieces. Love hearing the history of your family armoire!

  3. Christy, wow your furniture pieces are absolutely amazing. That first hutch and all the work you put into it, how special. A family heirloom for sure. And I love the Scandinavian style of the second hutch. Just gorgeous pieces. Lucky Duck:)

    1. Thanks so much, Ann! We now have 2 empty bedrooms upstairs. Looking forward to the antique hunt for these rooms.

  4. Christy,
    I LOVE that armoire. Wow, what a treasure. We have a beach cottage at Kure Beach and frequently take the ferry over to Southport. I just found some great deals at a thrift shop there a few months ago. Loved your post!

    1. Thanks so much, Rachel! Message me the next time you are heading to Southport. I can give you the names of a few places to check out, especially on Oak Island which is just over the bridge from Southport. Maybe we could even meet up for lunch.

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