Monday, June 26, 2023

Forever Furniture When We Down Size

Hi, Friends, 
How are you? I hope you are well. 


I promised you a post about our forever furniture pieces. 


Our house in East Texas is a little over half of the size of our house in town. The closer my husband gets to his retirement, the more it looks like we will make the country house our permanent house. 
How do you downsize 40 years of collections? 
I've begun thinking about it early almost to prepare myself for the inevitable. 
So. what pieces will get to go with us to East Texas? 

Top of the list is our corner cupboard. 


It is hands down my favorite piece. It's gorgeous, sentimental and it holds a ton of china. 


My plan is to put it in the corner of our little dining area. We need new French doors anyway.  If we decrease the opening with a single door or move them over a tad, we would have enough room. 
Bill thinks that we need to add on to create a formal dining room somewhere else so we will see. 


The dresser in the dining room is going too. 



I'd love to find a place for this sweet French commode. It's perfect for holding our silver. 


The wash stand that was in my room as a child, has to go. We'll use it in the living room as a side table. 


The little spool cabinet will have to be squeezed in as another end table. It was $5.00 at a garage sale. I adore this little sweet table. 

My grandparents wash stand could be a little end table somewhere. Maybe in the T.V. room or in the guest room. 



Now that I've painted our bed, I prefer the bed in the city to the one in East Texas but Bill feels opposite. 
Maybe we will sell both and get something we both love. 


We bought an armoire at an antique store early in our marriage. We had our T.V. in it for a long time. 
It could go in our room or in the guest room. 


Our first antique was a little drop leaf desk. We both love it. 


We have a lot of art that we love. We may have to do a gallery wall somewhere. 


The church attendance board will have to come. I love the French side chair. It was $3.00 at at garage sale. The little cherry end table was gifted to me by our realtor. 

We called this wall cubby a barber shop. I guess it held shaving mugs. 
It is one of my favorite things. 


  I'm not sure what dining table we will use. 
Our dining room table was made by my dad but it isn't super practical. We've had a hard time getting it to stop squeaking and you can't really add a leaf to it. I love these French style dining chairs but they aren't the best quality. 


The best of the upholstered furniture will make the move but it's all about 7-15 years old so it wouldn't be the end of the world to replace it. 
I do love the World Market chair that is slip covered in ticking stripe. It's a great place to have a cup of coffee. 


I don't think that the empire chest will fit. I'll offer it back to my friend Sara. It's the craziest story. I picked it out of the trash around the corner and brought it home. My friend, Sara came into to the house and said it belonged to her grandmother. I told her that was impossible because I didn't find it at her house. 
She said, that they put it in the trash at a house around the corner from them. It had a broken foot and they knew that someone who could fix the foot would rescue it. Bill fixed the foot and it has graced our home ever since. How fun is that? 
Actually, I'm not sure I can give this away. It has so much back story. 


We have so many memories in the city house but we are also making great memories out in the country. I think that will make moving a little easier. 


The pieces we bought for East Texas will be moved back to the city for a sale or maybe I'll get an antique booth somewhere. 
That is all for now. 
Let me know how you liked this post. 
I think it would be fun to do a post about furniture that love but that won't fit. 
Katie 

6 comments :

  1. Downsizing is a very emotional experience. It's hard to let go of "stuff", but it was a wonderful decision for us. Taking care of 2 houses was a lot of work. (We sold our big house and expanded our lake cottage). The one thing I miss is a formal dining room. I don't think you would ever regret adding onto your home in ET to include one. I wish you both the very best of luck with your move and I hope you'll be as happy as we are!

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  2. I'm doing the same thing. My move will be down to Rick's -- the other side of his duplex. No basement. A serious problem! My garage sale was the first (small) move of scaling down, but more to come over the next few years. I smile at your choices. Mine are much the same.

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  3. I am glad you are moving to the country. Nothing better then having a lot of space to roam. I would keep all the things you love too.

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  4. Can't wait to see it all finished in East Texas! you can't possibly leave that chest behind. it's beautiful!

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  5. It's so hard to downsize, but it looks like you've picked some beautiful pieces to keep. They have such sweet memories. x K

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  6. It is difficult to decide what to keep and what to let go of - you have so many lovely things! My husband and I are also getting close to retirement - we currently work in two different states (I'm in Texas and he's in Arizona, though I work remotely and go back and forth frequently). We're not sure where we're going to live, and will probably keep both houses for a while until we decide, but I have started letting go of as much as I can to make the ultimate move easier. It's a little easier since we don't have family pieces (just a very few small items), but it's still a large accumulation of stuff. I love seeing posts about your East Texas house, it's such a sweet home, and your style is very close to my own :-)

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