I’ve opined more than once about downsizing–how you feel so great about getting rid of so much stuff until six months or a year later and you either want it for something or see a photo on the Internet that gives you an idea of how to repurpose it.
Well, smack me up the side of the head again! See if you can guess what caught my eye in this gorgeous dining room I saw on my favorite decor blog, House of Turquoise last week…
Room by Cortney Bishop Design |
What’s that corraled in the basket as a table centerpiece, you ask? Many of you wouldn’t have known those were power-line insulators. But I worked in PR at an electric company for 11 years, so I know. The greenish-blue and clear glass ones are VERY OLD power-line insulators, from the first half of the 20th century. The dark brown ceramic ones are more recent but still interesting shapes. (See/read more about this home.)
Industrial envy…
I once had some like all of those shown here, PLUS an orange carnival glass one–mega-RARE–given to me by an official at a municipally owned utility in a town where I was a newspaper reporter. He said every once in a a while they found one still in service on a pole and when they replaced them they saved them.
Years later when I worked for at a different utility, that insulator was a paperweight on my desk, and drew a lot of envy from operations guys shuffling in and out of my office.
Where is it now? Probably on Goodwill’s e-commerce site. Since it and the others had been stuffed for years in the back of some built-ins I no longer own, I decided to part with them. After all, what could I do with them?
Here’s what I could do with them…
I no longer have a dining room table (we’re down to just a nook, thank you), but a basket filled with these would look great on my coffee table.
Alas, not to be, but it set me thinking about everyday items that would make great mini-collections and arrangements. Here’s what I came up with.
More stuff I wish I’d kept,
now that I know what to do with it…
Room by Margaret Elman of Chaircouture |
Momma’s hats. She wore a different hat to church every Sunday until the practice died out in the late 1960s. I loved helping her buy them. I loved watching her place them on her head. I loved the poetry of it. What a chic, top-of-the cabinet display they would have made. (See/read more about this home.)
Parents’ and in-laws’ old suitcases. We tossed two sets like the brown one on the right, and look what GORGEOUS shelves they make, neatly sawed off and hung in a group! Some whole and stacked as a side table wouldn’t be a bad idea either for storing guest linens and other stuff I’m saving to find a use for (don’t tell my husband).
Tools of the trade, ripe for repurposing…
reebob |
Scissors! My mother was a terrific seamstress and taught me a lot about sewing. Her dressmaker’s shears, as well as her pinking shears and embroidery snips are treasured items, but right now they’re just stuck in a drawer. I don’t have room for a wall display, but I think they’d also look sharp (pun alert!) in a large glass jar with some other on my desk, where I could always find them.
Nicole Franzen |
Shelf or tabletop, round or square,
I bet Goodwill’s got it there!
BHG Centsational Style |
Room by Sarah Richardson Design. Stacey Brandford photo. |
Fishing floats. (See/read more about this home.)
And in lieu of traditional bowl or vase filler,
be on cue with pool balls…
Pottery Barn |
Pottery Barn |
Pottery Barn |
Me too. I interviewed some older gentleman once who collected clocks. He had hundreds. I was about batty by the time I left. I don't know how he stood it, and he was all about winding them all and keeping them in good working order. Beautiful but…
Cute ideas! I love the vintage clocks – thankfully, they're stopped. The tick tock of old clocks drives me mad.