The Trunk

We did have that oak hutch refinished and whatever half-heartedness my husband felt for that piece immediately dissipated. It is one of my favorite pieces and it makes me happy whenever I look at it or open one of its doors. It was refinished by a man named Dainis whose specialty is furniture restoration, and he brought new life to the tired bones of this hutch.

Dainis and his brother were building a tidy little business scouring the countryside for antiques and either refinishing them or disassembling them and making new furniture out of the antique wood. My friend Lisa was a huge supporter of theirs and because of her their business boomed in the ex-pat community and they were able to export to the US and Western Europe.

It was here that we found our bookcase, a coffee table, and an “antique” TV cabinet. They also restored little pieces, too. I had a butter churn and a big abra—wooden bread dough bowl. It was almost a given that whenever one went to their factory, a purchase would be made, and with limited Sunday afternoon entertainment, we’d go there about once a month. It was fascinating, too, to watch these big men painstakingly sand off old paint or take tiny tools to some ancient carving that had been buried under decades of dirt and varnish.

One day, we were browsing and talking to them when at the top of a staircase landing was something we’d never seen before. It was a dowry chest: A BIG trunk with iron strapping, big handles and a big old lock. It was Swedish and under years of grit, they found beautiful rosemaling of flowers, vines, two birds and two hearts. Dainis restored the wood and a lady in their shop filled in the painted design. I absolutely melted. My husband hated it! “It’s nothing but a big useless box! It’s huge and we don’t have room for it! Who cares if it’s pretty?” Now I don’t mean to paint him as an ogre, but he is a very practical man. “Oh, but it’s so unusual! We’ll probably never, ever even see anything like this again! It’s another piece of someone’s history! This belonged to some other young bride who had to ship her own 100 pounds of home to an unknown future in this very trunk!” I don’t know if it was my personal identification with this trunk that won the squibble or not, but the trunk came home with us. Once it got to our flat and he saw how it fit into the grand scheme, and how it was actually a very handy place to store Christmas decorations and off-season clothing, he accepted the trunk.