I grew up in a fairly large house full of antique narra furniture. In fact, I was guilty of breaking some of them. Many childhood friends also had them in their houses. I took them for granted, especially when my mother began covering them with tacky foams and textile because they were “old.”
In the past years though, I’ve seen crazy people shelling out crazy sums of money for furniture that looked ordinary to me. Tens of thousands of pesos for cabinets which were nothing more than places to hide during peek-a-boo sessions with my sisters. Insane! Panggatong lang namin ang mga yun sa probinsya!
It was Pom who pointed out to me how deceptively pretty our old furniture really are. She fell in love with our old narra chairs as soon as she sat on them. Their concave backrests supported her perfectly and were among the most comfortable she ever tried.
Fact is, all of our old chairs are comfortable. There’s the Ybanag botaka with extra long and flat armrests where you could raise your feet to rest them while you lie back. There’s the sofa with finely woven rattan salumpwit that pass expelled air without trouble. Then there’s the fairly new “Cleopatra” that could double as a day bed.
I also remember we had chairs with twisted back support and feet. Parang yung sa 70s Bistro. My mother accused me and my cousin Agnes of leaving them behind in our Tuguegarao City dorm. I honestly don’t remember how they got lost. Sayang! They’re collectors’ items already.
Pom’s in love with this circular side table with a top made of a single rounded wood. I wonder at the size of the tree that was cut down to make it. We also have two distressed-looking cabinets that look like a million—dings, scratches and all. All Bassig grandchildren who lived in that house kept their clothes on those two cabinets. Frank even wrote his name on one of them. Sira-ulo talaga!
We have other pieces of furniture that weigh down our old creaky house. My mom has many antique thingamajigs besides. The house indeed looks and feels old. And comfortable. Of course, it does not hurt that Mama is obsessive-compulsive about neatness. Kaya siguro burara ako.
Because the house is ancestral and all its furniture is clan-owned, we really can not take away anything from it, can we? (But some of my aunts have already taken some things away!) So we just resort to buying neighbors’ discards. My mom bought a pair of solid wood cart wheels from a neighbor who was about to axe them to pieces and use them as firewood to cook his dinengdeng! We heard he threw the vegetables out the window after he got paid and cooked adobo instead. In Manila though, those two pieces of rotting wood would easily fetch 20 thousand pesos.
Anyway, Pom now buys native and antique-inspired chairs, boxes, tables. They are additions to the narra chairs my parents gave her some years back. Since we live in a small house, we are chucking the tacky-looking furniture that we’ve borrowed and bought and are replacing them with our new hoard. Pretty soon, our house will look like a Dapitan Street Arcade showroom. It would be nice to come home to a nice-looking digs for a change.
When we drove back home to Manila earlier this week, we brought back a plain-looking wooden chest. It’s big. Several Chinese contortionists could fit inside. What’s special about it was, it was made without using nails or glue. Only creative T’s and groves keep it together. I bet it’s more than 70 years old by the look of its handles and lock. Someone found it floating on floodwaters and gave it to my wife as a gift. It is now serves as our living room centerpiece.
Recently, I bought her a pair of narra chairs and a table to go with it. Unlike the overly decorated furniture made in Isabela now they’ve got understated elegance that grows with you the longer you stare at them. Parang si Julia Roberts—pangit sa biglang tingin pero “Pretty Woman” pala. We saw it on a junk shop but we did not pay it much heed because they just sat among a pile of old wood and broken glass from a knocked-down house. Without telling her, I drove back to the place after a couple of days and bought them. We are now trying to put back some polish into them. And soon, they will be in her work room as her worktable for her many projects.
My sudden and unusual generosity had an ulterior motive though. When you want your wife not to howl over the golf clubs you bought, you must first give her nice diamond jewelry. (Kapapanood ko kasi ng “Desperate Housewives.”)
Kasi, this junk shop along Laong-Laan makes furniture out of old capiz shell windows like lamp stands, cabinets, and others. Pom was there when we ordered a cabinet. But I firmly declared it would be mine. I don’t know why but she did not protest. Na-guilty naman ako, that’s why I bought the chairs and the tables for her. Those windows are already rare; I don’t know if they are still being made. But I am sure they are antique because they came from knocked down houses that must have been built even before the war. Their molave wood is so heavy and dark. Ang ganda!
Yesterday, I began polishing MY cabinet. Since we overspent already, I no longer have moolah to buy those expensive wood oils for the job. So I just squirted liquid floor wax on all its wooden parts and scrubbed them with 3M bunot. In no time, they shone like museum pieces. Ang taon kong pagbubunot sa luma naming bahay finally paid off. Of course naman, Johnson yata yan!
I still have some pieces that need polishing. Like my old wood piggy bank. Have you seen a small wooden thingy with threads before? Exactly! But I would prefer using wood oil next time. Sana may mag-regalo nito sa akin sa Pasko. (Hint! Hint!)
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11-18-2006
