I just recently started getting hooked on antiquing and it began after I purchased a 120 year old farmhouse...just curious whether y'all grew up surrounded by antiques or how you started collecting? Annie

When I was a teen, my mother would drag me to antique shops and I HATED it!!!! But when we got married and were very poor we realized that we could buy old furniture (at that time pieces like a round oak table) which was much better quality than new and so much cheaper and so . . . we started buying. Needless to say, I became hooked and have never looked back. (Although we have "traded" furniture a couple of times for different looks -- from golden oak to more European pieces)

I have got some of my mother's antiques now as well.

Martha

My parents became interested in auctions when I was around 12 and like the OP, I was forced to go with them. They began refinishing old furniture and gradually redecorated the house. I inherited a very few pieces after my mother died in 1976. My older brothers got the best, probably because I was clueless as to the value. I was 19 at the time!

When we moved into our current home, which is a colonial style home, DH and I began combing the antiques shops because (1) it was less expensive to furnish a house with old furniture than new. (2) the house cried out for antiques.

I love well made "old" furniture, and dream about what the previous owners were like. Makes owning it much more interesting.

Antique or "Used", quality furniture is nearly always a good investment of money...compared to new. At least in non-upholstered wooden pieces. The upholstered pieces are often well constructed too, but there is the added expense of fabric and labor to change the upholstery.

A quality constructed piece with a decent finish, (Even if it is not a true "Bargain", which most often are), one can usually still resell it at equal or more than it cost one. Can't say that for most new furniture that is purchased.

Got hooked in 1970 when I went to my first estate sale,and oh how I wish I still had the beautiful silk striped Dunchan Phyfe (sp) sofa I bought for $75 back then! I had just moved into a large victorian home & furnished it completely with old/antique furniture.

I've been buying/selling & collecting ever since. You either love it or hate it & figure it's just old junk.

Nowadays my taste runs more for mid-century modern,well made & wood you just don't see much of today.

I agree that old never loses value,whereas the new stuff is worth less than 50% soon as it leaves the store.

Hope you'll post pics of the old farmhouse!

My house is small and packed with all old tables and lamps. If its old I love it. I have a lot of my Grandmother's and my Mother's things and I would never part with any of them. I have her tea set from Japan and you can almost see through the china, that is how thin and fragile it is. My Mom gave a lot of the things that she treasured to me as well.

My mother started dragging us to thrift stores and yard sales at a very early age. Of course I was mortified to go to the thrift stores as a youngster. I was terrified that someone from school would see me and think that I was poor. In retrospect we were.

Mom raised us with a love and respect for history and old things. As a young adult we would spend every weekend at yard sales, estate sales and treasure hunting. Afterwards we would treat one another to pie at a local restaurant and discuss the days discoveries.

My first husband just didn't get it. My dear hubby now (and forever) is as nutty about it all as I am!

Yes, I've always loved "old" stuff -- vintage and antique.

When I was a single mom, old furniture was much more practical in terms of cost AND most of it was already beat up so my son couldn't hurt it

And, don't laugh, but I get a better vibe from old stuff. It's as though these things soaked up the lives of former owners. Can't explain it really. Maybe I'm just a bit a looney? LOL

I have had a love for old things for as long as i can remember-all things old. I bought my first antiques the summer after I graduated.One was a beautiful wrought iron bed that DH & I sleep on now,34 years later.My adoptive mother called it junk and wasting my money. I also loved going to yard sales, thrift stores, and flea markets, all of which she called junk.Ironic that when I got to know my biological mother and her sisters, this was also their favorite pastime.....

I appreciate the detail, beauty and craftmanship that goes into old things. A lost art today. Like someone else said- I often wonder about the former owners and their lives.I treasure my old things and no way would I trade them for new ones.

I've always loved antiques. My mother also does, as does my sister. Fortunately for me, my fiance loves antiques, too. I've never gotten half as excited about a new piece of furniture as I do about antiques. Becky, that's so interesting about your adoptive and bio moms.

I met my husband when I was 18 and the second date we had, went antiquing; bought a little washstand,he refinished and gave to me for my bedroom at home. He was born in Britain and had an appreciation for old things as his parents home was filled with antiques...really old English pieces and my parents home was filled with Early American furniture they purchased while stationed in Ohio in the sixties. All I know is, from about ten years on, everytime my parents went somewhere, I'd start moving furniture around my room, trying different things. I vividly remember at about 13, buying a copy of Seventeen and it had an article about how to decorate a teen room Early American style. I had that magazine for years and lovingly dreamed of buying furniture for myself someday. Been married 38 years and although we started with antiques are leaning more towards traditional these days, mixed with some pine and some antique pieces. I am not into the 1970's country look anymore, but I still get excited when I see something different. You won't find me buying trendy furniture.

My parents bought and refinshed old peices when I was a child and I loved them even then.By the time my Dad retired they were knowledgeable enough to start a bussiness selling antique peices at fairs and such. I love them and have quie a few peices of antique furniture that I have refinished. I just hope that my daughter will appreciate them as much as I do when I pass them down to her.
msmarymac2

When I was in the second grade my teacher read to us the Little House book series. It gave me an interest in conestoga wagons, log cabins, little sod homes, cozy little homes, and all things of olden days. My father is an auctioneer and I've been around interesting old items for years. My first auction purchase was a little cottage style two shelf bedside stand for 10 cents. I was about 10 years old when I spent my own dime. I still have the sweet little table. I have owned and sold many old goodies, not necessarily valuable but fun. It seems there is a good feeling to own a piece of history and wonder where it has been. Yes I caught the antiques bug very very early.

My parents have always had nice antiques, so I grew up around them in New England. DH and I prefer the rustic "log cabin" look and love old tools, wood tables, etc. Mom and I have great fun shopping for each other. I try to find stuff for her "New England" style, while she looks for more primative things for me.
DH collects things he remembers his Mom having, like Marigold Carnival glass, old tin boxes, and things his Dad had, like old tools, esp planes.
It is like a scavanger hunt everytime we shop!

Becky56....like you, my adoptive Mother thought antiques were just old junk. When I met my biological Mom she loved antiques and collectibles (although my half-sister does not, and neither do my half-brother's or their wives.)It wasn't until I met Mom, that I really believed genetics had such a strong influence on one's personality.

Mom and I loved to spend hours searching the shops. These are times that I treasure since she has passed away. So has my Mother. She kept a few of my adopted Grandmother's vases and such It wasn't much, but something to pass on to the next generation.

By the way, my half-siblings were happy to give me all the "junk"!

I made my first bid on an antique at an auction when I was 10.. I got a box of pre war salt and pepper shakers.. I grew up with old things, real antiques and thrift shop stuff, and fell in love with it very early.

The antiques I have are not many and not "important" but each one tells a story.

I have always loved old things and have a house full - family things and bought stuff. It makes me feel comfortable.

Love,
Lu

quote:

Originally posted by CottageFlourishings:
Becky56....like you, my adoptive Mother thought antiques were just old junk. When I met my biological Mom she loved antiques and collectibles (although my half-sister does not, and neither do my half-brother's or their wives.)It wasn't until I met Mom, that I really believed genetics had such a strong influence on one's personality.

By the way, my half-siblings were happy to give me all the "junk"!

I strongly believe that nature plays a strong part of who we are.Nuture might shape us, but the genetics are in place when we are born.

Have always appreciated old stuff although my mother did not. Her sister was an antique collector and I really liked all her things.
We did go to auctions, rummage sales(hated these), "junk" stores when visiting my mother's family in Maine. These were the activities that everyone did there at that time (no malls).
Now I am really torn because I still like antiques but I also like the more modern streamlined look too.

I've always loved antiques, used to love going with my DM to tea at the homes of some of her older friends and looking at their Victorian furniture. We had only a few vintage 30's things in my childhood home and I don't think my DM really liked them, in fact she gave the last one to me when I was newly married. I still have it, it's a small walnut drop leaf Duncan Phyfe table by Gibbard. Later they acquired a few antiques, my DF liked the older styles more than my DM did.

Unfortunately I had a brief period about 20 years ago when I sold most of the antiques we had and bought new which I regret. I'm now in the process of replacing those with antique and vintage. Fortunately I kept the antique and vintage accessories from family.