There are stranger pastimes, honest: spending my weekends in the quest for or nurture of antique pine furniture is not only relatively tame in the scheme of things, but actually lends itself to being the perfect pursuit for restful weekends! Intrigued? I’m happy to share …
* Weekends are about relaxation, right? But many of us find it hard to relax without a purpose: for some it’s going out for retail therapy – so the purpose is shopping; whilst others relax by yomping across several states – for the combined purposes of health, fitness and enjoying the great outdoors; for others still (like me) the purpose is the hunting down the suitably priced antique pine furniture with which I wish to gradually furnish my home!
* Popular relaxation techniques frequently include procedures that appeal to our senses: take aromatherapy, for example. If you have ever walked into an antique pine furniture suppliers outlet, you will know that the sensory effect of being in the store is astounding and has its own very therapeutic effects at the end of a busy working week. The smell of the wood, mingling with the wax finishes which many antique items boast is a truly aromatic experience, offering both warmth and calm. And that’s without the sensory therapy of running your hand across the glowing grain of pieces!
* The weekend pursuit of your new ‘old’ furniture can also include the fun of identifying items that link through a particular period of history, which can actually be a relaxing way of doing a little history homework with your kids. For example, having found the ideal antique pine chairs, it can then become a new quest to find a dining table that carries a matching barley-twist design to the legs!
* ‘Dressing’ the items is also a fun and purposeful way to relax at the weekends. Ambling around flea markets and thrift stores looking for the exact items to put onto the antique pine dresser can be a whole quest in itself which can be really companionable if you take others along with you.
* Of course, not all weekends need be spent in pursuit of the perfect item – this might get boring after all! Alternative relaxation can be found in organizing the perfect backdrop for a special item: for example the new addition of an item of American antique pine furniture could be enhanced by taking inspiration from its design in making over the rest of the room – there’s a few weekend’s worth of fun there!
Lastly, if you like the ideas but find that the search for the perfect item leads to frustration, rather than relaxation, then don’t panic. Instead, if you find the right size and shape of furniture, but as an item of antique look pine furniture rather than the real thing, you can still have fun stripping it, waxing it or distressing it, until you get the look that blends in well with your other genuine antique pine furniture, as well as giving yourself another relaxed and purposeful weekend with something really useful at the end of it!