Dear Karen: Antiques can be a wonderful addition to your home, even if you’re not a collector. My sisters and I grew up in a family of collectors and we were surrounded with everything from Carnival glass to rare 19th century French dolls. Mom told me my first words were “antique, don’t touch”. We never went anywhere without stopping at EVERY junk store, Salvation Army, used book store, thrift shop, second-hand store, yard sale, etc., et.c, etc. along the way, insuring that it would take us all day to travel even a few miles. Although he had a real “day job” eventually my Dad had to open his own shop just to handle the overflow from the house. Consequently, because they were such a constant in my life, for many years I thought I really didn’t like antiques and didn’t want to live with them.

However, as you found out, old stuff is interesting! And there is something about other people’s old stuff that makes it much more interesting than your own old stuff! So, you caught the bug and came home with the sniffles (so to speak) – what to do now?

First rule – don’t be intimidated by the fact that it is old. There is something about the word “antique’ that makes perfectly sensible people willing to put up with a hideous shade of puce on an otherwise attractive table. Naturally if you really have a valuable piece of signed something or another, you don’t want to slap a coat of fresh paint on it, but for most of us what we find are interesting pieces that, with a bit of assistance, can work quite nicely into our own lifestyle.

A few years ago I acquired an old oak Hoosier cabinet, complete with the standard issue scratched glass doors and scarred counter top. An artist friend made some beautiful stained glass inserts, with tendrils of nasturtiums trailing down, for the cabinet doors, and I covered the old counter top with copper sheeting. For years it stood in my kitchen and held spices, herbal teas, etc. and looked great doing it!

Lately I have been attracted to old silk and velvet scarves and shawls, many of which are really fragile. Rather than squirreling these away for safekeeping in a drawer, I am using them on the backs of chairs, as table runners, even looping and knotting some of them across bamboo poles at my windows and letting the fabulous lengths of fringe and lace filter the afternoon sun. I mentioned that my Mom had been a doll collector and a few of her folks are now perched up on the bamboo poles too.

Look past the original intent of a piece and think about what else it might be able to do to make it more applicable to your home and lifestyle. An old Chinese apothecary cabinet is great for holding all those little things (pencils, rubber bands, paper clips, matches, measuring tape, etc. that usually are all tossed into that one kitchen drawer. I have a life sized sheep (there’s something no home should be without) that I picked up about 20 years ago, that now stands in the living room and holds three (what else) folded wool lap throws. He looks cool and the throws are within easy reach when you want to wrap up in front of the TV.