Tuesday 31 December 2013

A Tale of Two Tables

When I first moved into this house, I'd just come back from Greece, and I had no furniture at all. Fortunately for me, this was at the same time that my mum decided to stay in Greece permanently, and sell her house in North Wales, which she had been renting out fully furnished.
She needed to clear the furniture out of the house, and the easiest way to do it was to give it to me. All I needed was a van, and a couple of kind friends to drive and to help me load it up.
Mum had a big kitchen, and a big kitchen table with four chairs. It's always been a bit too big for my front room, especially when I also had two small settees which could only fit in by making it look like an old fashioned railway carriage. And a Welsh dresser.
Freecycle was a great help. One of the settees went to help furnish a granny flat some years ago.
After my success with the new bed, I decided it was finally time to get myself a table that would fit the room better. A drop-leaf table maybe, with chairs that folded away underneath. I saw just what I wanted online - but in the States, and they didn't seem to be making that design any more anyway.
So I went round the antique shops of Hay with a tape measure in my pocket, and once again, local shopping has turned out to be best. I am now the proud owner of an oak drop-leaf table about half the size of the old kitchen table, with barleytwist legs. It came from the new shop, the Basement (it used to be part of the big bookshop on the corner at the top of the Pavement). Even better, the chap in the shop carried it home for me!
Freecycle split into two groups some time ago, so I thought I'd advertise the old table on Freegle first (the Brecon side of the border). I've had six replies, and I'm just waiting now for the first person who asked to decide whether they want it.
My front room is already looking less cluttered, even with the table propped up against the wall with its legs off!

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