Petals the Pony a Mastercraft Scotland Creation
I do. I love old and interesting. I find new yawn worthy and boring but more than that I find it doesn’t hold up to the test of time or the test of my family.
I find new doesn’t last these days. Most of the time. This is bad news with such a boisterous bunch using what’s in the house so I find another to buy older stuff.
The lovely creature above is Petals the pony. there is some heated debate as to whether petals is a he or a she but one thing is for sure Petals is TOUGH.
S/he is made mid century by Mastercraft in Scotland and I think it is made from old fighter planes (possibly, citation needed!) and although we bought it as a wacky ornament (albeit a large, beaten up and rather expensive ornament) we found our children love it and use it too. Luckily Petals is up for this with a very stern solid riding action (yes s/he moves under rider power, you move the pedals up and down- it’s pretty scary for me but the children adore it). A modern ride-on would have been in the bin a long time ago sadly. I am not sure why they are so destructive but until this phase passes I am not buying susceptible toys!
Another child proof vintage but is our Formica kitchen table setting, the seat upholstery is getting worse for wear but the table and the chairs themselves are going strong (you see the green of this table in many of my photos so you will get sick of seeing it!). I don’t mind paying for Vintage as it gives us good hard-wearing products as well as adding atmosphere to our interior decorating (is that what it is when we put all the things we like in our house? Let’s say it is!).
There are so many other benefits, not least the minimising environmental impact by not using up more resources and stopping things going to landfill as well as the act that buying vintage sees more money go to small family businesses rather than large multinationals which my have dubious working conditions for their overseas factory workers and a lot of new furniture is made with compressed board which is not only not durable (especially if it gets wet – like a Mogwai) but it could be made with weird glue which can outgas at you (also like a Mogwai? Our cat looks like some sort of gremlin and he definitely outgases!).
Do you have some great durable vintage pieces? Did you buy them or inherit? What benefits have you found?
The Dull Roar Philosophy 