Something about an antique wooden trunk gets me every time.  So much mystique surrounding the history.  Classic imagery of a forgotten antique wooden chest just perched in the attic of an old home brought overseas from generations past.  Gets me every time.  As does the pirate's lair with a chest bursting with jewels, gems and gold - what fantastic imagery.  Or, a stagecoach like in the old Western films carrying valuables and solid ingot to the next big town.  Lookout for the robbers!  Any which way, there is no denying the allure of something with such quality and clear purpose - to hold something in safety.  Whether the blacksmithed iron wrapping around top, sides and bottom, or the single wide-plank wood walls, the brass details, the dovetailed joints, the awesome customization and personalization of inscribed names, dates or destinations, these are amazing relics.

Where did these chests and trunks come from - who owned them? How old are they? What is the story? What did they hold? In some cases there is evidence - on many of the antique trunks we have there are signs of previous owners - a beautifully scripted name and date for example flanks the inside of this super old antique wooden trunk:

Others like this classic antique wooden chest with iron have little to no information to trace anything:

Even a wardrobe trunk can have information so pertinent and detailed it almost brings you to that date, like the short-but-sweet hand written content check-list on the inside of this Indestructo Trunk.

Some trunks have a clear purpose - or at least modifications for an intended purpose.  This old chest has a converted inside lined with Cedar - great for antique linens and wool.

While others just leave you wondering - Rascal must have been one serious Rascal... I of IV!

Whether you love the graphics, relate to the travel and journey, adore the patina and hefty qualities, the idea of feeling safe and secure, we look forward to seeing what amazing antique trunks and chests you select from our shop! 

Enjoy!

M+D

We love rugs.  There is always at least one or two spots for a special antique or vintage rug in your room: and it does not always have to be on the floor.  A rug can be displayed on the wall, atop the ottoman, slung over the side of a couch.  So with all these different ways of decorating with rugs, lets talk about what we consider rugs:  Technically a rug is an area rug measuring approximately 5'x8' and smaller in size.  The word 'rug' and 'carpet' are for the most part used interchangeably.  In the Old New House shop, our featured rugs are exclusively hand knotted or hand woven - which is the more intimate of many types of processes in making rugs*.  This is one important aspect of what we provide to the customers: Authenticity and genuine hand made rugs.  So while one part of authenticity is hand made nature, another important factor is true age.

So how do we date our rugs?

In the Old New House shop, an antique rug is one we place an estimated age of 100 old or greater.  This is somewhat of a conservative approach to calling a rug antique (some say 60 or 80 years).  Why do we not call an 60 or 80 year old rug antique?  Many years ago, old customs import/export laws would only consider a rug to be antique if it exceeded 100 years old.  Many museums and collectors still consider this to be true.  In the ONH shop, if you see us calling a rug an antique, it's more or less pre-1915.  Here are a few of our antique rugs:

An antique Mohtashem Kashan rug

An antique Belouch rug

An antique Kerman rug

What is a vintage rug?  We consider a vintage rug to be one with a weaving date of +/- 40 to 99 +/- years old. Due to a high level of commercialization in the rug industry, we select the best of the best vintage rugs to offer in our shop - great quality wool and weave, awesome contrast or tone on tone. Here are a few examples of Old New House vintage rugs:

A gorgeous vintage Sarouk runner

A hard-to-find size rug - a happy vintage Hamadan

A vintage Kerman rug

*  Loose paraphrasing of industry wording - an Oriental rug is a hand made weaving created with or without pile comprised of a warp and weft made in the Near, Mid or Far East. Technically, this includes many types of rugs - Kilim rugs, hand knotted rugs, soumak rugs, even hand tufted rugs.  The rugs we feature in the shop are exclusively hand made, and most all of the rugs are hand knotted. While qualities in all types of rugs may vary, the process of hand knotting rugs is considered among the more intimate of processes to create a floor covering.

Melissa + Dave

Old New House

There's nothing quite like having a piece of real history on your wall.  Antique pull down maps are one of those wall art pieces that are stand alone + amazing. 

Maybe it's the golden patina, perhaps its the crackling texture, maybe it's the subject matter - Europe, North America, or an antique pulldown World map...  At the end of the day, we think it's a combination of all these things + the story:

Often used as educational guides in schools, libraries and public institutions. These maps and charts were pulled on, rolled (at times slapped up too quickly) - sometimes several times a day.  What an amazing thrill it was to have a break from the squeaky chalk board and have one of these maps rolled out in front of a classroom.  Perhaps these are the very maps of yesterday that inspired the likes of future politicians, dignitaries, architects, teachers and more.  Perhaps geography wasn't everyone's strength in school, but I think we all had a secret thrill from seeing something different during the school day - especially the ever-so-welcome colorful outlines of these relics.  It's amazing to see these in the condition they are - some of the antique pull down maps we offer are 50, 75, 100 years old.  A few are even pre-Civil War! 

As a testament to this beautiful and mysterious world and the education process where today's learning aides and classroom tools seem to be ever so easily replaced with digital, we hope you too can find inspiration from these maps and charts.

M+D

Old New House

We could not be more excited to be a part of our first ever vintage show experience in a couple of weeks! January 17th + 18th -- we will be at booth #44 with a small never before seen vintage clothing collection as well as lots of our ONH shop vintage textiles (rugs) + other lovelies - with the specific collection availabile for pre-viewing here (there will be some new items, mainly rugs, as well!)

If you come to see us at the show + simply mention the website, we will have a little gift for you, will give you an instant 20% off of anything in the booth AND we will even credit your admission towards a purchase -- so buy your tickets here +  come on down! Can't wait to meet you! And although the beautiful model below will not be there (we don't think) some majorly awesome vintage fashion will be -- including one of our favorite pieces that indeed has black sequins galore. 

 & Just one of our beautiful antique rugs we will be bringing:

Also, we are taking special requests if there is anything from our shop that you would like us to bring down so that you will have an opportunity to view it in person before purchasing. Just e-mail us at md at oldnewhouse.com and let us know when you plan on attending + the item of interest. 

See you there!

As people who live and breath rug, you'd think we'd have it all figured out in our own home but truthfully finding just the right rug takes time and patience (unless of course you see it in our shop and you know that's the one!) Since moving into our new house in August, it has been a bit of a slow but fun process getting things situated. To me the biggest project still remains: the entryway. Ours is tight and a bit awkward which means of course it should be amazing when we are done figuring out what to do with it!

Dave has some big plans for make custom shelving (one of those to do's to add to the list of many home creations!) because it is a bit narrow for typical furniture. I am looking forward to seeing what he comes up with that is both unique, practical and baby-friendly (as our current reclaimed metal stand is not!) but first things first -- we must find a rug runner! Naturally we sometimes fall a bit in love with our own merchandise and are always a bit sad when we send them off, so even though we will likely source a brand new vintage piece for ourselves, I will have some fun showing off some runners of our own that might work well in the space --