A Little to the Left…

Of the fireplace that is…..
You’ll find a shelving unit.  Not a buffet, hutch or china cabinet, to my dismay.  But I shouldn’t complain.  I bought this piece of furniture over 20 years ago from This End Up Furniture.  It isn’t my taste now, but I am grateful to have had and used it all these years.  At one time it was our entertainment center.  We had the TV and VCR (remember those?) sitting inside it.   And we had lots of Barney and Disney videotapes on the cabinet shelves behind the doors on the bottom.  And really, it is very useful as dining room furniture now.  You see our dining area has virtually no walls!  On one exterior wall there is a fireplace in the middle leaving about 4 feet of space on either side.  On the other exterior wall there is essentially a glass wall.  There are 3 sections, the middle is a sliding glass door opening onto a screened porch, and on either side are matching floor-to-ceiling windows of the same size of the sliding door.  The 2 interior boundaries of the dining area are:  a wide arched doorway opening into a living room, and an open area stretching into the kitchen – no wall at all!  So you see there is no place for a buffet and hutch.  If I had a piece like this (I wish!), I would have to convert the 4th downstairs room (a den affectionately known as the “man cave”) into a dining room, just to take advantage of the wall space!

I do think however, for a future project, I will cover the back with white beadboard or wallpaper or fabric or maybe just paint it.  I could approach it like Rita does and change it with the seasons.  (In the post linked above, she is using plain brown craft paper, but you may see other brighter backgrounds during previous seasons.)  the other idea I’d like to steal from Rita is to glue a strip of quarter-round molding about an inch from the back across each shelf`, to serve as a plate holder.  I love this pheasant.  I guess he’s a planter.  I just found him recently, out thrifting of course!  I have him holding some old silverplate spoons.  I also thrifted  the larger plate in the back.  The smaller plate (mostly obscured) is a little souvenir plate from a little town in Maine.  I love the apples on it.

I count the apple cookie jar a huge thrifting score.  I have no idea if it is a vintage item or a repro, and I don’t much care.  I have just always loved rosy red apples, so cheerful!  And then there’s the pink (red?) transferware.  I don’t have a full set, just:  4 dinner plates, 5 saucers, 1 teacup and 1 cake plate.  That’s the fun of collecting.  I never know when I’ll run across more.  I like the oak leaf and acorn border.  The one little bread & butter plate is from another pattern, but I couldn’t just leave it there.  That is a real bird’s nest, found on a Christmas tree one year, and inside it I placed a little apple candle, a perfect fit.

You know when you poke around at a thrift store (or any store), and you find something that you know immediately is going to come home with you?  It sort of takes your breath away, and you instantly know that the one piece has made your shopping a success.  That was how I felt when I found the little hand-painted toed teacup and saucer.  And months earlier, when I saw the little creamer to its right.  A better picture of it is here.  And you can see that I have added a dinner plate of Taylor Smith Taylor’s Brocatelle.  (Can I tell you a secret?  There were more of the teacup-and-saucer sets, painted differently, you will see them when their seasons come.  Shhhhh….don’t tell.)

This is an eclectic mix.  (I guess it all is, really.  I wanted it to be interesting to look at, as well as celebrating Autumn colors.)  The little brown beanpots in the back came from my father’s house, as did the plate they are on.  The tea strainer was a thrifting find.  Front and center is one of only 2 brown and white transferware  pieces I have.  (All the others are brown/multi.)  The other is barely visible to the right.  The jar earned its way by having little beanpot-type ears.  Now, does anyone know the purpose of the lemon-shaped pink dish with the gold wheat motif?  I think it may have been a little ashtray?  But I will use it as a spoon rest.  It is Lenox, and I found another, same shape, ivory, no motif.


That tiny rose is petit-point, I think.  You can see 2 orphan pieces of brown/multi transferware in the back.  I love the autumny colors of the flowers on the little b&b/dessert plates.
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And now to the right….
I’ve done a tiny bit of revising of this little cabinet since the last picture:

But it still needs work before I shoot more pictures.  Now there is a bright yellow chrysathemum in the orange plant pot.  The wreath needs some decorating, and I plan to drape the doors and drawers with some vintage linens.  Soon.
But we can look at a couple of close-ups.  Here is some of my gorgeous Royal Worcester Evesham Gold.

The little clock is an inexpensive item I thrifted for a song.  I can hardly resist a pretty clock.  I’ve never been so lucky to run across any of the vintage clocks that Becky at Sweet Cottage Dreams collects.

This is a blurry picture, but I wanted to show you that I had found a place for the mercury glass vase, and for a few of my brown teapots.  I found another just the other day.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the little tour to the left and right of the mantel.  It is a work-in-progress, and a little difficult to photograph.  For such an open space, it actually is very dark, very little natural light makes it in here.  More to come, soon!