Someone in my house collects both new and vintage souvenir spoons. Someday, I think we must have them all transformed into a chandelier like this one by Australian artist Suzy Stanford. Ms. Stanford also upholsters vintage club chairs by patching together vintage tea towels. Love love love these big cozy hugs of chair. We have a nice little collection of tea towels going, too — but I actually use them to dry dishes, they are the best.
Vintage souvenirs reborn: Tea towel chairs and teaspoon chandeliers
Posted by: • July 9, 2009
Vintage teacups – reborn 
Vintage bath towel sets from Martex, Cannon, Utica Stevens, Harmony House and Yves St. Laurent 
75 sets of MIB NOS ceramic towel bars, soap dishes & toilet paper holders, in 7 vintage colors 
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I do not know which one I have fallen in love with more, the chair or the chandelier. The chair brings me back to when I was a vintage textile dealer and the chandelier is present day. I love Ms. Stanford’s site. Brilliant, fun and fresh.
My MIL gave me a set of embroidered Days of the Week tea towels and I don’t know how to display them. (I don’t think uphostering a chair would work for me
Any ideas?
JoAnn, how about as a valence?
I love them both but the chair! wow!
wow, two minds with the same thoughts across continents – I have been collecting old tea towels for years to do a sofa like this! Also, in my book of wants (when I have a big enough kitchen) are pictures of spoon chandeliers, though I haven’t seen them done with collector’s type spoons before.
I have a large collection of souvenir spoons, hanging sedately in matching spoon racks in the living room. I dare not show them the top photo or there will be an uprising!
Love both of those ideas, though I am partial to the chair even though I too use my towels for drying the dishes. I do have tea towel curtains I’ve hung in a couple of rooms made with some that were too good to dry with- maybe that’s an idea for the days of the week towels? I just use the little squeezy rings, in case I ever want to switch up the towels!
Hi Pam!
I know this post is going back quite a bit, but I happen to have a stack of Australian tea towels remarkably similar to those used to upholster that chair. They’re all from 1976 (seventy-something, I’ll have to dig them out).
If anyone is interested in them, I’m not terribly attached to them and would be glad to donate them to a good home.
Thank you for you wonderful blog! I’ve been reading it like mad the last few weeks since I found it, but this is my first comment.
- Raynor
Hi Raynor, and thanks for coming out of your lurking!
Stumbled onto your page looking for tea towel and I am IN LOVE with that spoon chandelier!! I’m going to start collecting spoons just to make that!