We succumbed

Or maybe a better title would be: We found what we wanted!

Last spring we went to Tongeren, Belgium, for the Sunday morning antique/flea market. We were disappointed because we didn't see much antique furniture, but by the end of the morning we had decided what we wanted. We made a couple trips to the local Troc, a store that sells what could be considered somebody else's junk, but still didn't see what we were looking for: a wall-mounted coat rack, a monk's bench or a trunk, and maybe a square table for the kitchen.

Since we had today off for Columbus day, we decided to make a weekend of it by combining visits to Sint-Truiden - another antiques area - Tongeren, and Sankt Vith, where there's a big furniture company that caters to Americans from Germany and Belgium. Saturday we visited several dealers in the Sint-Truiden area and saw some beautiful furniture but not exactly what we were looking for, although we were really tempted by a small table with extension leaves that we think must have been incredibly cheap despite its great condition and Louis-the-something style. We then moved on to Sankt Vith (traveling from the Flemish-speaking Sint-Truiden to the German-speaking area of Belgium), where we realized once again why we didn't buy any furniture there the first time we visited: it's new, pretty, and sturdy but incredibly expensive.

So Sunday morning we headed for Tongeren, not expecting much after our last experience there. And we found the mother lode. Fortunately we didn't buy the first thing we saw but kept looking. And we ended up with a monk's bench, in what appears to be perfect condition, made in England in the early 1900's.

This particular bench has a feature we really liked.

Bench:


Swivel the top and you have a table!


It's an awesome piece of furniture. We can't believe we have something so nice.

Oh yeah, we found that coat rack we wanted too. We're not going to hang it here, though, because we're done making holes. Gotta think about starting to patch those buggers one of these days in preparation for our (reluctant) return to the States.