I am happy to return with another post from my series, This Piece Has History. If you read last week’s post, then you know it’s been about a year since this series was a regular on the blog. I wanted to bring it back to remember the importance of collecting and having things in a home with memories and meaning. Today, I am showing our secretary desk.

I love this piece of furniture, because it definitely has a fun past to tell! When my husband and I lived in Germany, I started going to flea markets and antique fairs to begin to fill our empty nest. One weekend, we went on a trip to the Netherlands and Belgium for their famous antique markets. I stumbled upon our secretary desk while at the market in Tongeren, Belgium. I loved it right away, as I had been recently browsing through magazines with similar desks. We drove to the markets in an SUV, so this filled the entire back of our car on the way home! I knew it would be a practical purchase for us, because we didn’t have a ton of space in our apartment. We were living in a 700 square foot apartment, so smart shopping was key! Not only was it beautiful, it became our desk for our laptop. Now that we are no longer cramped for space, the desk is now a place to store books and meaningful accessories. The coral was a gift from my mom, and the book it sits on was a gift from a dear friend. You may have heard me say before, that I am constantly moving things around in this house. Accessories don’t sit in one place for long. So now that the coral is here, I may need to shop for a new accessory for my living room dresser! The shelves are filled with pictures, including one of my husband when he was little.  This desk also holds some of my blue and white china collection that I started while living overseas. This may not be a furniture piece that we use every day, but it has meaning and special memories attached!

If you have been reading for a while, then you may remember when I started the series, This Piece Has History. The premise for this series was to pick a furniture/accessory piece from my home and discuss its roots and personal story. We all have unique, meaningful pieces in our homes with a past, and it’s always those pieces that tell a special story. Well, the last time I wrote for this series was in May. {Are you allowed to post once a year and still call it a series??} I thought I would bring it back with one of my most favorite furniture pieces… the chest of drawers in my living room!

I’ve had this piece for a few years now, and it’s the special story behind it that makes me love it even more! This chest of drawers has actually been with me for almost three decades. When we were growing up, my mom used to work at a local antique shop. {Hence my love for design!} While my mom was working, she would also envision how some of those pieces would fit in our home. When she came upon this chest of drawers, she loved it! My sweet dad went back to the shop when she wasn’t working and bought it! My dad arranged for the shop owner to bring it to our house Christmas Eve night to surpise her! I love that story. We had it in our living room growing up, and we used it to store craft items, wrapping paper, etc. As I got older and appreciated antiques, I have always loved this piece! When my mom was moving things around in her home one day, she realized there was no space for it anymore. She then asked me if I wanted it! I didn’t say yes right away, because I knew she always loved it as well. But, she truly wanted to find space for other things and didn’t see a fit for it in her home. She wanted to keep it in the family and knew it would work for us in our space. We also have it in our living room, and I feel as though it’s still both of ours! It continues to be one of my favorite pieces in our home. And when I look around our house, I find that it’s always those pieces with history that are a favorite!

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a wonderful, restful weekend. I am back for the second installment of the new series, This Piece Has History, where I show a furniture piece in my home and discuss its roots and special story. In my dining room in between two windows, sits an antique bench from an old church. It’s funny how you stumble upon things for your home that you didn’t even know you needed, but had to have:

I came by this furniture piece at the last second. My mom and I go to an annual antique fair held during the summer. This particular year, we didn’t find anything we wanted and were ready to leave. We decided to go into one more tent, and there it was! It was a great price and I instantly loved it! I knew it would be a versatile piece and could be moved into different rooms, to occasionally switch things up. The antiques dealer said it was salvaged from an old church and was one of their benches for playing the organ. I love pieces with a history and loved it even more after knowing its past. It now happily sits in our dining room as an extra serving piece or just a place for baskets and storage. A few years back, it was also a sofa table! And a big thanks to my mom for giving us this furniture piece as an early birthday present! I look forward to searching for more treasures with my mom this summer at the antique fest.

Do you often look at pieces of furniture in your home and smile, thinking of its story- where it came from, the special or crazy meaning behind it? NO? Well, I do!  🙂 I thought it would be fun to start a new series called This Piece Has History… where I pick a furniture piece or accessory in my home and discuss its roots. When we lived in Germany, we brought home some interesting stuff from flea markets and our travels. Some have silly, crazy and unique stories behind them! I will kick off this series with our dining room hutch…

This piece was bought while living in Germany. I saw it in an antique shop in Wurzburg, right across from the castle. I loved it at first sight, but it was way too expensive to make it home with us (that day.) I went back to the shop a few weeks later, to check if it was on sale. But to my dismay, it was no longer there. I was crushed. I thought that was it…. until, one night when my husband and I went out to the movies. (Poor guy thought we were only going to spend about $20 on movie tickets and some popcorn! Little did he know!) We had some extra time before the movie, and I spotted a clearance store with the same name as the shop by the castle. It was on a side road by the theater, and I had never heard of it before. We go inside, and there it was! Not only was it still around, it was about 40% off! It was truly meant to be. We paid for it, right then and there and they delivered it soon after! I could not get the smile off my face the entire movie. (We saw The Bourne Identity when it just came out.) To this day, my husband still says that was the most expensive movie we ever went to!  🙂