Today I'm sharing my love of vintage architectural salvage by way of some recent vintage church corbel finds.  

Our small village church, known as the Little Home Church by the Wayside (seen above), is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. As part of that celebration they are updating the church's infrastructure, as well as one of its outbuildings known as the Guild House (or meeting house).

Villagers were invited, via the village's Facebook page (discovered by my loving husband), to visit the Guild House before the demolition company arrived to dismantle it. The invite hinted that there might be “a memento or item of minimal value” that would be available for would-be treasure hunters like yours truly. Of course I had to go.

 At the Guild House, after finding nothing of interest on the first and second floors, my husband and I retreated to the dark, unfinished basement in the hopes of finding something worth bringing home. And boy did we find it!

I came upon six really large, white, chippy corbels lying on the ground, thrown against the wall hiding in the shadows.

I knew as soon as I saw them that I had to have them. So I inspected all six of them, one by one, to determine which ones were worth saving. Some were almost completely falling apart. 

But I found two of them to be in decent shape. So I put them aside and continued on with my desperate search. Desperate because I knew there would be more people coming down those rickety steps into the old basement any minute!

 The first two corbels were huge. I mean they were really tall.  

 Then I found one more corbel that took my breath away.

The paint and chips and nail holes were almost too good to be true.

All told, we paid $15 per corbel for a total of  $45. If you've ever priced these things out in the wild you know that was a bargain! Just recently I saw a corbel similar to this one in a local shop priced at $125. Crazy. To say I was pleased with the purchases would be an understatement. 

I later had fun rearranging the master bedroom mantel decor while leaving the corbels to flank the arches. I moved the impasto church painting in front of the cathedral arches and added a framed Irish botanical print to the mantel.

  

I also added my vintage chinoiserie cache pot filled with a boxwood topiary, along with some pink faux peonies set atop a vintage book bundle.

I can not express just how much I love these old, architectural salvage corbels. Getting them from just any place would be a happy enough occasion. But bringing them home from the church, saving them from potentially being destroyed and lost forever - priceless.

I usually display my corbels on either side of something, like bookends. They work well with these faux vintage cathedral arches, don't you think?

 Placing the impasto church painting in front of the arches just adds to the rustic look of this fireplace vignette.

The corbels can also stand alone as a statement piece, like this chunky corbel sitting alone on the side table. You'll notice that I'm also using a set of corbels as actual bookends on the left side of the mantel. They're faux vintage, with just the right amount of chippy white paint to make them appear to be the real deal.

I also used the church corbels as part of a previous architectural salvage post about vintage balusters. It's fun to be able to mix and match different vintage elements together to create a certain shabby chic look.

I am super-thrilled with my vintage architectural salvage church corbels. I don't expect I'll ever find anything again even close to them and their storied background. They're truly a slice of history I am proud to have been a part of.   

Well, that's it until next time, friends!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my

  Shabby Chic Vintage Architectural 

Salvage: Corbels

and that I've inspired you in some way.

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