Sunday, February 10, 2013

capiz shells -- old friends come back around

Sunday, February 10, 2013
yes, you're seeing eggs in our living room.
we like making our decorative pieces functional   

we recently went hunting for interesting pieces for the house and discovered this antique shop/warehouse not too far from where we live. the boys and i hyperventilated when we saw the pieces being sold. i revamped our home office a couple of weeks ago and the husband and i agreed that aged window panels embellished with capiz shells would look perfect on the off-white wall behind my desk.  we found just what we were looking for and that made it an awesome sunday for us.

maxi, the antique shop owner, told us our pieces are from ilocos

i personally have a special connection with these window pieces because it reminds me of our humble home way back in the 70's. as a little girl, i enjoyed sitting  by the window where the planters were to watch what was happening on the busy street below me. we lived in an old apartment surrounded by sliding windows and i remember how pretty they looked, especially when the sun shone on the capiz shells in the morning. 


my mother owned an insanely heavy oval antique table with intricate carvings. to her it was part of a collection, but to me it was my house. i’d bring my toys and stay under there most of the day. if the house would fall silent and i was nowhere to be found, that meant i had fallen into slumber in my “house”. one of the things i remember doing while lying under the table was watching the blue sky through a hole in the window where a piece of capiz shell once belonged.


now, seeing these panels on different parts of the house pleasantly sweep in nostalgia. we only needed two panels for the office but ended up buying five — because they’re too pretty to turn our backs to.

i’m currently completing the work that i’m doing in the office. i’ll post pictures when we have the final look. for me, it’s half done without the lamp. we’re still hunting for the “right one”.


capiz shells, antique shop, manila, philippines, sunset, sunlight, home office, decoration, window panel, old table

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