my talented husband installed copper countertops in our former kitchen (a cool way to disguise ugly formica) I loved those countertops and I hated to leave them when we moved....in our current home he covered the countertops (again ugly fake marble) with stainless steel....

we have a huge stash of crazy quilts that my husband's grandmother made during the 1960s and 1970s.....they are getting even better with age. some of them have older quilts sandwiched between (the true recycler she was, she never wasted a thing), that are revealed when a patch gets worn or a seam opens up--I stitch them closed or patch with vintage fabric, sometimes letting the inner layer show through. Hope to keep them forever and ever and pass them on to my own kids.....

Anytime something gets a nick or a tear or a lump...my girlfriend's mom calls it "the patina of life!"

I used to resist the notion, but now I can embrace it.

Having things that wear and look used and productive make me feel more comfortable in my own space.

Almost anything oak looks better old than new (floors, trim).

Good leather seating, when cared for properly, only gets better with age. The leather gets softer, it develops a beautiful, sort of glossy patina and the color seems to get richer.

I second the leather. Another thing I prefer with a patina is glass (not cut glass). Jars and vases and household objects are so much better a little bit dulled. Same thing goes for pewter, brass and some silver.

This made me think about how so many of the products that aren't especially friendly (solid wood, leather) are the things that can stay around forever and be exceptionally useful and beautiful, while polymers and many alternative materials have a set lifespan.

Oh - and classic wooden picnic tables and park benches -- the more wear and tear the better!

The house I was renting before I bought my apartment was built in 1855 (one of those skinny 2-up 2-down houses built for workers, with a bathroom and kitchen added at the back much more recently) and the treads on the stairs were worn down in the middle, showing 150 years worth of people walking up and down.

While we didn't do the aging ourselves, I like the worn look of the heywood wakefield dining chairs that we have (which are also sturdy as all get out and cost us a lot less that new chairs, even cheap ones, would have). The little cement buddha statue that sits on our porch is starting to look a little mossy around his hood area, which I think is nice. Cast iron skillet, yep, and my grandmother's wooden rolling pin (nothing sticks - ever). And I think my mom's getting cuter as she gets older and cares less what other people think.

the ancient white marble my bathroom sink is made of . . .

"The patina of life" - I love that!

I used to have several plants in terra cotta pots, and loved the patina the pots would eventually develop - so much prettier than new terra cotta.

ALL wooden furniture if properly cared for, of course.

My 104-year old piano. I have a modern home and my piano might be considered "ugly" by many, but I love it! Water marks, scratches, dings, and nicks...it sounds beautiful and has more character than most of the nay-sayers. :)

Oh yes, the stone exterior stairs leading up to some of the older buildings at U of Illinois in Champaign that were worn down as much as an inch where most people walked. They made me think. Cool marble-lined vintage bathrooms too...

Polkadot, please tell me more!! I've been wanting to cover my formica coutnertop with copper and would love to hear details-- what kind of glue did he use? any tips? Thanks!

I disagree about the picnic tables; what about splinters??
I have a cherry wood table that has developed a lovely warm color over the years.

The sterling silver flatware my mother gave me.

We also covered our countertops with copper and we absolutely love them. We never polish them, and they do indeed, improve with age.

Cowgirgly, we used Plumber's Goop on our counters. It is made for bonding to metal surfaces, but I wouldn't recommend it. It didn't perfectly adhere to the plywood substrate in some spots, and there are a few "bubbles" or "humps" where the copper can be pushed back and forth (only fractions of an inch, but still annoying).

Woks.

Woks get more seasoned and better with age. In 1980, two years after my parents immigrated to Texas from Vietnam, they bought a wok. My mother cooks almost everything in this wok -- omelettes, chicken stir-fries, fried fish.

A few years ago, I was looking through my parents cupboard and found a brand new wok. When I asked my mother why she never used it, she told me that she cannot part with her old wok, which is now almost 30 years old.

I think my mother will still be using the same wok until the day she dies. I could see why -- nobody makes a better fried catfish with green mango than my mother.

That is why we got soapstone countertops for our kitchen -- they age gracefully. They are not meant to have the high polish of granite, and the little knicks and worn spots are...friendly. Plus, we love how beautiful they are when oiled... not a bright shine, but a deep dark lustre.

My grandmother says that pearls get shinier when they're worn; I think the oil on your skin is supposed to get absorbed in them, or something like that. This is why, according to Grandma, estate pearls are better than new ones.

Enjoying this thread greatly. Thanks AT.

Things I enjoy aged:

cast iron pan
handspun towels
organic rice
good red wine
leather shoes
leather handbag (waiting for this to get the "patina of life")
cotton quilt
terracotta pots
stone cook pots (Indian - you age/condition them by soaking them in washed rice water)
black-and-white photographs
wood tables - especially my sewing table

Definitely *not* my car! It's aging and giving me a slew of troubles.

This is one of my favorites posts/links-to-a-post ever. Whenever I would look in the department stores with my folks and think about what I wanted to ask Santa Claus for, it didn't take me long to figure out that I hated things that broke easily, or that looked, generally, like crap in five minutes. I loved my building blocks and Legos and stuff, but I hated anything that had expendable supplies that couldn't be replenished easily by a store near us.

Now, when I'm working on anyone's apartment, including my own, I'm very aware of wear and tear, and which things one should never have to buy again, and which things make perfect sense to change out.

Only Westerners would think this idea is unusual. It's called wabi sabi in Japan. Time to give your culture a check.

What I dislike is the disposibility of objects in the minds of many, that is buy a portable CD player, toss it around, drop it etc and you may be lucky to get 6 months use out of it before it's broken beyond use. Now, I will contend that it sometimes can't be helped but why exasserbate the probability of it's demise quickly if you don't have to?

I have a Panasonic portable CD player that I bought in 2004 to replace a crapy Magnavox model that got stolen and yes, it gets played daily - in the car and yes it has some mild scratches and yes, it's fading some due to the sun but I still use it and it works just fine thank you very much. Such items rarely seem to last that long these days due to use and abuse. I'll continue to use it until it finally just dies. I had that happen with my first portable, an old Kenwood I initially purchased in 1991 and finally, it got to the point over the years that it would skip at the least provocation while driving and it slowly began doing it in late 2002 but by early '03, it was so bad that even just sitting still it would mistrack. I finally had to replace it, and yes, I did clean the lens too, to no avail and the Aiwa I bought to replace it died 6 short months later when the logic board suddenly went.

I'm a believer in using things until they can't be used any more, which means in some cases years later before it just wears out, which all things will do. But along the way, the patina many items will take on fascinates me and shows that the item is being used as intended, which is why I love old things and love places that show a little age, rooms that have items that have been around a while, kitchen items that while not expensive necessarily are of different years, stages of condition etc shows history. That's it, history is what I connect to, that sense of time, that a person has kept house a few years (or decades).

There is a difference between general use and negligent abuse and people often don't care enough to take some precautions with electronic gadgets to help them last as long as possible, which is more of what I would like to see. After all, I (and many others) can't really afford to replace a $40 CD player every 6 months due to rough abuse.

I think I may have a contender in the "oldest useful object" contest. My wife and I are still using, and admiring, Revere Ware pots we bought when we were married more than 57 years ago. The pots -- stainless steel with copper bottoms -- have weathered the years somewhat better than their owners, but we're all still going strong.