my ‘new’ very old curiosity cabinet

I scored my dream curiosity cabinet.

I do not use Facebook marketplace regularly. I mean, I browse it A LOT but I’m not huge on meeting up with strangers. Buuuut when I find a dream piece I make exceptions. By “exceptions” I mean that I nicely ask my husband to pretty please call them and come with me to pick it up.

This piece that looked great on it’s listing was ten times better in person. When I walked into the room full of boxes this dude had and spotted the cabinet in the center of the room, I couldn’t shove my money in his hand fast enough. No, dude, you don’t have to hype it to me. I know that I neeeeed it.

I spent the ride back from picking it up sweating bullets. The piece weighs next to nothing which means that glass is thiiiin. I was convinced we’d hit a pot hole and it’d just explode into a thousand tiny pieces. It just felt too good to be true.

She made it home in one piece though! Stunning curved glass, nice and wide, just around one hundred years old! I literally can’t imagine a piece more perfect for my oddities in this house.

If you recall, when we bought the house the previous owner left behind an Ikea cabinet that I really liked. I immediately knew it’d hold my oddities. You can get a peek of that here. The more time I spent in this house though, the more I felt like Ikea furniture was not a great fit. When I re-did our living room, the Ikea cabinet full of oddities got moved into Jeff’s office ‘temporarily’ (meaning it would stay there nearly a year while I tried to figure out what my plan was.)

Please don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Ikea but I do feel like my one hundred and fifty year old house needs at least some time appropriate furniture. I will never be a restoration purist. My house will most likely always have a mix of new and old furniture. I think you should do whatever floats your boat. I will tell you one thing though, this cabinet? MADE FOR THIS HOUSE. Made for my weird crap! The age, the condition, the piece in general? PERFECTION.

I am just tickled pink over this. I rearranged the paintings on the wall and went through all my boxes still left in the attic to find the perfect pieces to display inside the cabinet.

You know what else is rad? It still has the key to lock the cabinet. To be honest, I didn’t realize it was a key. I excitedly showed my dad my excellent new score and he said “Ah, you’re lucky it still has the key!” Confused I responded “Nah, that’s just the knob.” He pulled it out of the lock, I screamed!

Like many folks, I have always thought old keys were neat-o. I’ve owned quite a few but none that actually went to something! That was just the icing on the cake to this purchase.

Maybe I should be giving FB marketplace more of try! xo