Use Your Hand-Me-Down Furniture

If you have lived long enough, there's a good chance you have acquired furniture from parents and grandparents. Some people store those items, leaving them for their children to dispose of someday. While that may be the easy thing to do, it's hardly fair to your children, unless they really want them. Others use them to furnish their cabins. Still others try to integrate them into their present homes and, in the process, find it difficult to do well.

Here's an idea: create a "heritage room" using those old items. Not only do you avoid the clash of old and new furniture; you build a monument to your past and the lives of your parents and/or grandparents.

Over the years, my wife inherited or was given pieces of furniture and other items that belonged to the earlier generations of her family. After trying to fit them into various places in the house, she finally decided to make a heritage room.

Here are some of items that are part of our heritage room:
A chest of drawers that came from Ohio and made its way into Iowa where my wife's ancestors settled, then to Minnesota when my wife and I moved here in 2002.
A sewing machine that now serves as a bedside nightstand.
A bed that once belonged to my wife's great-grandparents.
An old carom board that decorates one wall.
A quilt that my late-mother-in-law received from the students (and their parents) at the country school where she taught. Alternate squares of the quilt contain the names of the students and/or parents. The quilt is the major decoration on a second wall.
A simple shelf unit with objects (such as salt and pepper shakers) that hold special memories for my wife anchors the decorations on a third wall.
A photograph of the farm where my wife was raised is at the heart of the decorations on the fourth wall.

The pictures that accompany this article will give you a better idea of how we have integrated several items from different generations into a pleasing whole.

Here's another simple idea: create a shadow box to display small items-such as grandpa's favorite cufflinks, special jewelry, pictures, a little piece of a map showing the country your ancestors immigrated from, glasses, etc. The purpose is to present items that instantly remind you and others of the special people in your life.

Two other areas of our house contain items from my wife's ancestors. I've already mentioned the heritage wall in our garage. In addition to the carom board mentioned earlier, the wall also contains old tools used or owned by my late father-in-law. The third heritage area in our home is in our basement family room. Across the top of our bookshelves is a selection of objects, such as old flat irons, an egg scale, and a cowbell. Mounted on the wall above the bookshelves is the musket carried by my wife's great-grandfather in the Civil War.

If you like antiques-or just plain old items-you will enjoy the flavor that a heritage area will add to your house. The only limit is your imagination!