antiques Archives - An Eye For Detail

DAY TRIP TO MEBANE, N.C.

By Libby|2014-09-27T14:59:58-04:00April 4, 2012|It's Local, Shopping|

It was a beautiful day and a perfect time for a road trip. The purpose was to go to Mebane and buy

some Annie Sloan Chalk Paints. I know many of you are familiar with these (you are the reason I’m now convinced it is THE paint for me!). But for those of you to whom this is a new company and a new kind of paint (really, it’s paint? with chalk?), read all about it on the Annie Sloan website.
I’ll give you more reviews and links to read about this paint at the end of the post….So, off we headed to Mebane which is about an hour from my village.
No, it’s not me-bane, it’s ‘me-ben. I know, it took me a while to get it right.
Mebane is one of those southern towns that was founded with the textile, bedding and tobacco industries. It was actually incorporated in 1881 and flourished with the railroad transporting textiles and tobacco. The White Furniture Company, which had been one of the major employers, finally closed in 1998. The Mebane Bedding Company, now Kingsdown, continues to be a major player in the bedding industry.

Off to find my chalk paint. Lucky for me, the nearest retailer is the

Melville Trading Company.

SALTERINI OUTDOOR FURNITURE

By Libby|2014-05-15T11:02:39-04:00May 4, 2010|8 McDowell, Home Design, Shopping|

I inherited three of these chairs a few years ago.

I had no idea what they were called, who had made them, or when they had been made. They were just sitting outside, always, either at my grandmother’s house or later at my father’s. A piece of (heavy) junk I thought…
Not so fast!
Just this spring, when I was getting ready to do some sort of make over on these chairs, I began to investigate… These are called “clam shell” chairs and they were made by John Salterini, in Brooklyn, New York! Then, when we went up to Hudson, NY there they were again…….at this shop:

Beautiful, rare example of a rocker:

And here are my chairs:

Ours were probably bought, by my grandmother, around 1950. She had a really lovely backyard terrace in Chestnut Hill, PA. I think I vaguely remember these….
But, of course, by the time these came to me fifty years had passed (really?)

You can see, the rust was there alright…

So I sanded and scraped and spray painted: