Home is where the heart shape is....Warning this post is quite brown...

Hands up if you have made a 'Heart Warmer' yet?  Sorry to read of so many mohair allergies - I will be setting up a 'Mohair repository' so that you may donate all scarves for 'alternate' use - all scarves welcome 'Chez La Cootard'

Sorry - photo is a little skew whiff!  I mentioned in a previous post my fondness for the Arts and Crafts movement (no - not the 70s  macramé one).  This began at the age of about 17-18 (odd child....) and I busily would buy up bits that took my fancy (providing it was cheap of course).  Along with the Pre-Raphaelites such items were not particularly in vogue at that time (not sure what was as I was always out of kilter) so able to pick up all sorts of things. Common denominators  are certain  motifs - hearts in particular but also trefoils, peacocks and honesty seeds.  The focus here are heart motifs in our house - bought several decades ago and  all nestles quite happily amongst things from the 50s and 70s (1950s and 1970s that is!).  I have no problem with that mix - that is how most homes have always been - a bit from here and a bit from there and ours is no different.  This is most ably illustrated by watching old editions of The Liver Birds where you will note that Beryl and Sandra's flat is full of things from the then contemporary 70s but also 50s and 30s (Bronte and I like to watch The Liver Birds and comment on the wallpaper etc)

Arthur: " I wish that she would get on with it"
Martha: "That's just what I was thinking - why use 570 words if 3 will do...."

So what is this?

This large and heavy object lives on our dining room table - dates from 1900s, has lovely coloured tiles (a bit bashed but hey!)  and inlaid with little pewter hearts peppered around the edge.

Arthur: "Yes - but WHAT IS IT?"

I am coming to that Arthur - patience is a virtue - this is a lemonade or drinks stand as you might have seen in a drinks establishment of that time.  How lovely. I used to have a very old metal lemonade bottle holder (with lovely Edwardian lettering around its triangular edges) but no longer sadly - I would pair the two together and 'make' the children play shop with me...I hope that they are not scarred for life.....

I will add in some other Arts and Crafts heart things scattered around the house here:

A little bowl that lives on a small oak writing bureau (that I bought from 'Skippy's Nearly New' junk shop in Brixton thirty years or so ago - anyone remember that shop?)

Hearts are quite often 'inverted' in the Arts and Crafts world (as these tiny ones on the bowl are)

I remember someone asked on this blog if it was a pulpit seen  in our dining room......!  Sorry I cannot recall who asked that but it is not a pulpit but an Edwardian cloak cupboard (must be a proper name).  We bought this from a shop in Crystal Palace about 25 years ago (not sure why I find it important to tell you those sort of details) - the partition on top is for hats and there are hooks in the main part for cloaks/coats.  Also not sure why but it has lived in our dining rooms and I just like looking at it!

I use this for housing some more Arts and Crafts pots (yet another weakness....)

This cupboard also benefits from having lovely trefoils which, as you will see in a minute, is the main reason why I thought our present house was the one for us (I am ashamed to say that the white bits you can see  are some bits of Blu Tack...)

My £5 chair with cut out heart

I have bleated on about this chair before but here are some others with cut out shapes...

Though this house was in a right ruddy state before we bought it I remember seeing the stairs with this motif in each an every spindle and thinking: 'Oh, that matches our furniture'

A mirror bought from the old Greenwich market a few decades back - lives in our hall

Mirror lives above the Arts and Crafts seat that I garbled on about previously. Dear Hattatt when that moment of the 'Great Downsize' arrives - as it surely one day will - I will let you know and you will be most welcome to this lovely piece.  I very much like the idea of things going to appreciative homes.

If you are still here I will press on...nearly done...

These hearts are on a washstand in our spare bedroom 

...and yes I do 'force' guests to use the jug and bowl for washing purposes - cold water at that (ha ha) !!!!

I was about to post this post and realised that I had forgotten about another favoured heart item - our front gate!!! I have mentioned our gate before but I do not think I posted 'before' pictures.

This is how it looked when I bought it ......

As soon as I saw those hearts I knew.....

Now I am not fond of things being over restored and it certainly does not have to look pristine but this gate was sadly pretty rotten in places

Poor long-suffering Dom (who is not a builder/carpenter/plumber etc) painstakingly took the gate apart.  He photographed it along the way so that he would know how to put it back together again.  It is fantastically well made with peg joints and it is very,very, very, very heavy.  It took a while.... but...

It cheers me up when I go through it (sad but true) and I like leaning over it to chat to my neighbours -even the postman tells me how he likes our gate.

Front path could do with a clean...

FINALLY -  and this is possibly my favourite heart item - our 1900s copper umbrella stand (I bought this from a shop off Chapel Street Market  (London) again 25 years ago.  It also sits by the front door (other side) and I love it greatly.

It is quite beaten up but I love how it has been made from a single sheet of copper - curved round and riveted back onto itself and there, on both 'sides', is a repoussé heart.

I have always liked the combination of copper with oak and will write more about copper 'bits' another time..

Please let me know if at any time I am boring the pants off you

Arthur: "You are boring the pants off me" 

You don't count Arthur....

For now that's it from the 'Hearts and Crafts Movement'  !!!

PS - Contrary to any impression that I may convey we do not live in a museum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!