With as much demolition and construction as we’ve done since moving here four years ago, we haven’t had much time (or money!) for furniture shopping. Thus, many of our rooms are fairly empty. So when my mother-in-law announced that she was planning to downsize and asked if there was anything at her place we might be interested in, I didn’t hesitate to ask about her wicker furniture.

Family folklore has it that when Julio’s great-grandparents bought their summer cottage in 1920, the previous owners left behind a five piece set of wicker furniture.  This same wicker suite has been passed down through several generations. In fact, our daughters will be the fifth generation of kids to claim the petite rocking chair as their own. Unfortunately, back in the the 1970s, the third generation painted everything shamrock green.  (Pleased to meet you - I’m Paddy O’Furniture!  Sorry - couldn’t resist!)

1920 wicker wearing 1970s paint

Julio couldn’t understand my interest, mostly because he had a hard time seeing past the bright green paint.  But I knew it would be a lovely addition to our home.  First of all, it’s roughly the same age as our house, and I really loved the idea of having something of the same vintage.  Secondly, the scale is absolutely perfect.  While our house is roomy by bungalow standards, most modern furniture is too large to fit comfortably in our living room, but this wicker set fits as if it was made for the room. Lastly, I’ve always loved the interior photographs I’ve seen of Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman Farms, in part because of the unexpected juxtaposition of curvy wicker chairs and settees against Stickley’s masculine, rectilinear wooden furniture.  Beautiful!

Of course, Stickely’s wicker was natural wicker, and our recent acquisition was bright green.  Since you can’t easily strip wicker, we decided to go with a deep espresso colored paint that seemed at home with our dark tables and woodwork.  Next on out list will be finding an upholsterer who can recover the cushions in something more bungalow-appropriate, but for the time being I suppose I will have to live with the existing cushions.  Eventually I would also love to add a small tabouret table next to the large rocker, and an area rug to serve as a room anchor (Oak Park Home and Hardware has a few drool-worthy contenders) but since we need a few slightly more important items before we can purchase a rug (new roof, anyone?) the rug won’t be joining the family any time soon.

And so, without further ado, here are some snaps I took of our recently painted family heirlooms. (Julio, who is quite particular about photography asked me to specify that I took these photos, so that if you find them less than technically flawless, you won’t blame him!)

Living room as viewed from the front entry

Wicker furniture - close-up view

Living room - alternate view

Living room, decorated for Christmas

By the time we we purchased our bungalow in 2004, it had been abused as a rental house for well over a decade. As you might expect, none of the original lighting remained (with the exception of the brass fitters in the living and dining room box beams.) Sadly, everything else was long gone, but don’t feel too sorry for us - we definitely had fun choosing new lighting!

We selected copper-foiled Tiffany-style stained glass shades from Rejuvenation for our living room sconces, box beam fixtures and dining room chandelier.

In our kitchen, we used five Arts and Crafts style pendant fixtures from Progress Lighting. (To tie the fixtures together with the rest of the room, we installed matching carmel-swirled glass panels in the cabinets flanking our refrigerator.)

For our ground floor bathroom, we chose sconces and overhead lighting from Schoolhouse Electric

In our front entry hall, we used another stained glass fixture from Rejuvenation which incorporated all of our paint colors from the entry hall, living room and dining room, which really helps tie the ground floor together.

We got the floors refinished just before moving in. This is one of about three things that we did hire out. Floor refinishing is an art, and it’s not one that you want to practice on 1,000 square feet of your own wood floors.

The floors in this house are continuous through the entire downstairs, even into the closets. That means that you have to do all of it at once to keep it looking right, as there are no transitions between rooms.

We opted to have them refinished without a stain, because we thought that the lighter color would help offset the dark woodwork. In the end, we feel that we made the right choice.

These look much better than the old (non) windows.

The new windows reflect the flash a little more than the surrounding trim due to the polyurethane, but in normal light they are a very good match to the existing woodwork.  The windows add a ton of character to the room, which was missing with the sheets of glass.

The living room, like the dining room and foyer, has the original, stained woodwork. While it’s not in perfect condition, it looks very good and gives a feel of real craftsmanship. Also, we were very excited about having a fireplace again!

Among the many other unusual things about this house was the fact that there were very few openable windows in the downstairs.  Notice how the picture and double hung windows on the left side of the picture are not actually windows.  Someone went to the trouble of removing the original windows and replacing them with sheet glass.  It was like being in an office building, with no fresh air.  We  put opening windows high on our rehab list.