Do you have a favorite piece of furniture? And does it move from place to place? In our family we adore this chair. Its history is just a bit muddled. I'm not sure where it came from originally. My daughter, Erin, acquired it in Kansas City when a neighbor moved away and didn't want it anymore. It is really a most comfy place to sit even though it was a little shabby originally. Eventually I moved it to my house in Des Moines. We had it reupholstered in this tapestry fabric and it immediately became even more valuable. Most people will just buy something new and be money ahead, but this chair was family. And I never buy new when I can have something old. The chair was right at home in the attic "library" of my 1918 Craftsman style cottage.
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It was an ideal chair for reading and I loved that it was surrounded by books. This was the kind of house that looked small from the outside but it had lots of space. I was sure it would be our forever home. There were nooks and crannies and built in cupboards and shelves. My grandbabies called it the house of drawers and doors. We moved here after raising our family in a nineteenth century house on a country acreage. Even though our little bungalow was my favorite house ever, I chose to sell it and move on after Jim died. This was a perfect home for two, and much too sad for me when it became a house for one.
The favorite chair next landed in the second story apartment of a Tudor styled brick house. The space was much smaller, but the floor plan was almost the same as the main floor of my cottage. This house was built in 1925 and the exterior looked like it belonged in a fairy tale.
This was another place where I planned to stay, but after two years I very unexpectedly became a House Mom to thirty young men in a new fraternity building that felt like a hotel. There was no room for my own furniture in my little space, so almost everything I owned went into storage. Little by little, I visited the storage unit and brought things back. I became an expert at vertical decorating because my two little rooms had 12-foot ceilings. This was the only new place I have ever lived. I tried my best to make it feel homey.
Although I've moved two more times since my frat house years, that was the last time I owned The Chair. When John and I married in 2019, I moved into an old farmhouse where he had lived for nearly thirty years. That house was filled with items and memories that weren't mine. Although it was a nice old house, I was happy to buy another. Now we live in a one story ranch style practical house that works for us. We think it is perfect for our second story. It feels new to us after all our old houses but was built in 1986. I do miss the whimsy of older houses but the benefits are best for us now.
My middle daughter, Meg, took it to her 1906 Queen Anne style home, complete with tower, winding stairs, and lots of space. I'm sure it was happy there. But Meg's house has an abundance of chairs. Eventually, it moved back to Erin again. And now, it's on the move again and its next home will be with Bridget, back in Des Moines. It has truly been a family chair. It's starting to get a little shabby again, and the upholstery may be beginning to fade, but this old chair still holds my heart.
