Once, this held a winter’s worth of grain. Found in Belgium and dating to the 18th century, this big plank chest lifts open on an iron-locked lid, a small lidded box fitted into one corner inside and heavy shoe feet below, the wood scrubbed pale and soft. It began life as a grain bin, the locked chest where a farmhouse kept its grain and flour safe from damp and mice, which in a lean year was the most valuable thing in the house. Sylvie would set it at the foot of a bed or under a window for blankets, or stand it against a wall as a low surface for books and a lamp, the way a good old chest earns a second life.
