Virtual visit - dining room

This Duncan Phyfe dining room buffet (along with the table and chairs not pictured) belonged to my great Uncle Edgar and Aunt Gladys. When he moved off the farm and into a small assisted living facility in the early 1980s, Mom brought it home with her. She was always upset that someone had allowed the tea cart that matched it to be separated from the set and sold before she got there. I wasn't crazy about the set at first. But I've grown very attached to it.

The art hanging above it is a grouping I really like. They are all fruit still lifes. The top left is not very clear due to the reflection on the glass, but it's one that I got for free for helping a friend of mine clean out a house (it had been left in the house when the people moved out). The frame on it was horrid and falling apart. I routinely look at frames at auctions, etc., and had this gold one in my stash, and it fit perfectly...it was about a five minute job to switch them out.

The top right is a fruit still life that I was instantly attracted to. I found it as a single old calendar page at an estate sale...just a sheet of paper. Obviously someone else had liked it and saved it when they discarded the rest of the calendar. I think I paid a quarter for it. It was my only purchase. I carefully kept it protected flat for years. I liked the art so much, that I finally decided to have it professionally framed. I took it to a framer whose parents I've known for years (his dad framed all my stitchery for ages). Conincidentally he had a printer friend visiting the store that day. I laid my lowly calendar page on the counter, and the printer immediately gravitated to it, and told me that it was a copy of a print from Currier and Ives. I paid way more than a quarter to have it framed.

Bottom right is a basket tray from Mom's. The fruit print in the bottom is covered by glass. I was always crazy about the art, so I had to hang it.

Bottom left is a new piece I found while out shopping with Kasey and the girls.

Hanging to the right of the buffet are the two flatware shadow boxes. When we divided up Mom's stuff, I didn't really want the old stainless flatware set, since I was sure it would never be used. But sentimentally I asked whoever took it for one place setting. I recently got around to matting and framing it (bottom frame). The frame on the top holds a silver place setting that Carey's mother received from a family member and had been holding on to for years. I was thrilled when she gave it to me to frame too. I like having them displayed like this.