This post about hand-me-down furniture is one of the most popular posts I've ever published and I didn't even write it myself. It fits in with my snobbish notions of interior design having once read that the aristocracy don't buy furniture, they inherit it.
Today marks the end of an era as I sold my dining room table after 20 years. It wasn't a new table when I acquired it. It came from my friends N and T when they upgraded. Her mother bought it for them in a Harrods sale when they got married 41 years ago and it came with them when they moved to Jerusalem.
I always got a kick out of the fact that the table came from Harrods. I usually buy a pencil in Harrods just to get the bag. However, the truth is that it fit better in my old apartment which had a wider and longer dining area. This apartment really needs a different shape table. With the arrival of Ikea in Israel, a new table has been on my wish list for a couple of years now. Can you call it upgrading from Harrods to Ikea? I think you can.
The table has gone to a young couple of newlyweds who are looking forward to entertaining family and friends on shabbat and festivals. I hope they enjoy 20 years of great meals and wonderful company around the table just as N & T did , and then I did. And then they can pass it on.
Meanwhile I haven't actually got the money to buy the new table yet so I'm using this vintage Ikea kitchen table that I was given by friends when they moved to a smaller apartment in Jerusalem. It also came with them from England where it had been the table in their morning room in Liverpool since some time in the 1990s. The first Ikea shop in the UK opened in Warrington in 1987. They tell me that the table was bought from Ikea in Warrington a few years later.
I'm in no hurry to purchase a new table. I'm enjoying the space and the lighter atmosphere of the white table. Did I tell you that I'm a bit obsessed with the Tiny House movement and Minimalism? I watch TEDx talks about less being more and I'm fascinated by people who can fit everything they own into two boxes. Whilst I still want a separate living room and a bedroom for each of us (no climbing up ladders to a loft space) and a fully plumbed shower room and toilet is essential, I find myself looking around to see what else I can sell or give away.
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| Harrods, London 1974 |
I always got a kick out of the fact that the table came from Harrods. I usually buy a pencil in Harrods just to get the bag. However, the truth is that it fit better in my old apartment which had a wider and longer dining area. This apartment really needs a different shape table. With the arrival of Ikea in Israel, a new table has been on my wish list for a couple of years now. Can you call it upgrading from Harrods to Ikea? I think you can.
The table has gone to a young couple of newlyweds who are looking forward to entertaining family and friends on shabbat and festivals. I hope they enjoy 20 years of great meals and wonderful company around the table just as N & T did , and then I did. And then they can pass it on.
Meanwhile I haven't actually got the money to buy the new table yet so I'm using this vintage Ikea kitchen table that I was given by friends when they moved to a smaller apartment in Jerusalem. It also came with them from England where it had been the table in their morning room in Liverpool since some time in the 1990s. The first Ikea shop in the UK opened in Warrington in 1987. They tell me that the table was bought from Ikea in Warrington a few years later.
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| Vintage Ikea, Warrington 1990s |
