Friends Thrift Perfect Vintage Mantel—Then Realize They Have to Get It Home

Friends visiting a thrift store found a vintage mantel they “simply couldn’t live without,” but there was one problem: carrying it all the way home.

Maddie Morris and her best friend Eve Matheson, both 27, were visiting Chelsea, New York, when they wandered into a thrift shop. They didn’t notice the hand-carved mantel at first, but on a second loop around the store, they instantly fell in love.

Morris told Newsweek that she “thought it was amazing” but she and Matheson both live in the West Village, so how would they get it all the way there?

“We stood there deliberating for a while, considering if it would fit in her apartment or in mine,” Morris said. “We live in the same building but have different layouts. But could we even get it home? Finally, we decided that we just had to have it and could figure out the rest later.”

The duo thrifted the mantel for $150, which they thought “was a steal” considering it’s handcrafted and vintage.

Then came the tricky part—lugging it back home.

Morris and Matheson tried to hail a cab, but that was hopeless. They tried putting the mantel into the back of the car, but it wasn’t even close to fitting inside.

“The driver was already shaking his head as he was pulling over, but he stopped and let us try anyway. It simply didn’t fit, and we knew the whole time that we’d have to take the subway,” Morris continued.

After that failed attempt, the friends carried the mantel to the subway, accompanied by their friend Lexy, who served as their “traffic director and videographer.” While the mantel wasn’t too heavy at first, it was awkward, and the longer they carried it on their shoulders, the heavier it felt.

Getting the mantel down the steps to the subway wasn’t too challenging but getting it through the turnstile was a real problem. Morris “briefly got stuck” with the mantel on opposite sides of the gate and had to enlist Lexy’s help to get through.

Once that literal hurdle was overcome, they rode the subway three stops and then had to walk several more blocks.

“You’d be surprised how uninterested everyone was as we passed them,” Morris said. “We carried the mantel four avenue blocks (the big ones), three stops on the subway, then a few blocks home. And finally, we had to carry it up six flights of stairs at the end.

She continued: “By the time we walked four avenue blocks and up and down the train steps, it felt a lot heavier. We’re the same height, which made it a lot easier to carry. We almost knocked a couple of people over and there was the brief turnstile debacle.”

Once they got the mantel inside Matheson’s apartment, they also had to rearrange all her furniture to find a spot for her latest thrifting find. Aside from the physical challenges, Morris jokes that the “most difficult part” was admitting that the mantel looked better in her friend’s apartment and letting her keep it.

“It looks so good in Eve’s living room. It has so much lived-in, well-loved charm, which matches her style perfectly. I have first dibs on the mantel if Eve ever moves, so no one get any ideas,” Morris said.

Following this escapade, Morris shared a video of them carrying the mantel home on TikTok (@maddieemorris). The hilarious footage documents the various difficulties they faced and the peculiar sight of them lugging it up and down the subway.

The post went viral and has amassed more than 716,000 views and over 56,000 likes on TikTok since it was shared on February 4.

The online response is beyond anything Morris was expecting, as she never imagined it would attract so much attention. Many people responded by saying they saw the friends carrying it through New York, while others praised their novel thrifting discovery.

“I had a feeling that people would get a kick out of it when I posted it, but I had no idea it would get so big. It’s fun to be able to hear stories about people’s great thrifting finds,” Morris told Newsweek.

The viral TikTok video had amassed over 400 comments at the time of writing, with many social media users praising their determination.

One comment read: “Taking this on the train is the most New York thing I’ve seen in a while. Kudos!”

Another TikTok user wrote: “Y’all were committed!”

“This is the kind of dedication I admire,” joked another commenter.

Many referenced the famous Ross Geller line from Friends as they attempt to get a large sofa up a stairwell, with one writing: “PIVOT! PIVOT! That’s all I hear when you guys are taking it upstairs.”

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