A French Provincial Style Dining Set

I picked up this lovely dining set on Saturday at East Hampton's annual town wide tagsale, which in my opinion should be a National Holiday. It's vintage made c.1965 by Bassett Company. It has four dining chairs (two armchairs and two side chairs), the table, and a 12 inch leaf. I painted it in a custom antique white, distressed, and dark waxed, and recovered the seats with a simple matching cream upholstery. I sanded, stained, and sealed the cherry top to show off the lively wood grain. It's just so curvy and sweet, I hope it goes to a big old Victorian house!!

When I was just starting to think of how to stage the table for photography, my dear friend Amy showed up, as if by magic (which, to be fair, I'm not entirely sure Amy isn't magic) and gave me a huge batch of gorgeous chicken and duck eggs that her gals had just laid. They look perfect in the pictures and I can't wait to make huge omelets with them tomorrow morning! Thank you Amy!!!

A Mid Century Modern Dresser in Mint

I actually refinished this dresser a couple months ago. It had a matching tall dresser which has now sold, but this handsome piece hasn't gotten much attention, likely because my initial photographs didn't really do it justice. I hauled it out of my workshop this morning, restaged it, photographed it, and hauled it back in before the thunderstorms hit today. It's vintage, from the early 1960s, beautifully built with a removable mirror and superb walnut top. It's painted in a custom mixed mint, lightly distressed, and finished with a dark wax.

Skye and Old Lace

The quality of furniture in the last twenty or so years has plummeted. It's sad to see the horrendous products that are being hoisted off on unwitting buyers by big box furniture retailers. You know who hasn't compromised their quality, though? Ethan Allen. They've in no way compensated me for saying that either, unless you count that their furniture, of such reliably delicious caliber, makes my job stupid easy and satisfying whenever I get my hands on one of their pieces.

       I've refinished about a half dozen Ethan Allen pieces over the years. I suspect that's because they're holding up so well in their original state that most people see zero cause to sell them, and also because at multiple thousands of dollars per piece, it's probably quite hard to recoup the cost in the secondhand retail markets where I tend to purchase. But every now and then I'll get one, the unicorn of the furniture world.

        Ok one more admiring bit. For years I worked as a high end antiques dealer handling furniture made by the most skilled craftsman of the 18th and early 19th century. Ethan Allen is the only ONLY large manufacturer that I've found whose quality rivals those of the early furniture makers. There's no reason these pieces won't be around in three hundred years. Sorry. I get really fired up about furniture.

       So, I got this solid cherry china hutch from Carl the Furniture Guy a couple weeks ago. I had another hutch to work on first but I was dying to start on this one. I painted the exterior in a custom mixed antique cream that I've named Old Lace and the interior is a custom mixed blue called Skye. I swapped out the drawer pulls, distressed it and sealed it with dark wax to soften the colors just a hair more. I staged it with glass and ceramics that speak of the seashore, cause it's late June, and damn if we're not all craving a beach day.

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A Vintage Desk and Antique Dresser in Pale Lilac

These two pieces did not by any means start life together. The dresser is an antique mahogany piece from the 1920s or 30s. The desk is a vintage maple piece made about forty years later. I got the dresser at the flea market last weekend, and the desk off the side of the road. I refinished both pieces together to match for a client's daughter's bedroom in their new beautiful home. The color is actually Benjamin Moore's Purple Easter Egg, but I hate that name for this color, so we're calling it pale lilac. To give the pieces a fresh bright look I whitewashed the tops before sealing them, and recolored antique oval stamped brass pulls with white as well.

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A Vintage Pine Cupboard in Mocha and Buttercream

I bought this handsome vintage solid pine stepback cupboard at the flea market last week. It's gorgeous but the golden pine felt quite outdated. I sanded the top and stained it in a deeper darker shade, then sealed it. I painted the exterior and the shelves in a custom mixed buttercream and the backboard and interior in a custom mixed mocha. I removed the awkward little fences from the bottom shelf, and swapped out the weirdly small and ugly drawer pulls for larger cove pulls that suit the scale of the piece much better. My favorite part of the cupboard is the slots for hanging wine glasses. Of all the cupboards I've refinished over the years, probably around 100, this is the one and only that I've seen with this thoughtful and handy detail. I posted a picture of the cupboard on my instagram account while I was photographing it yesterday, and it was immediately snapped up, before I even had a chance to write the blog post!

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A Handsome Pair of Antique Side Tables

I picked this lovely pair of antique solid mahogany side tables up at the flea market a week ago. They were in wonderful condition, but needed a little updating. I refinished them custom for a client in Revere Pewter and English Chestnut for the tops. I left the original elaborate stamped brass pulls in their warm time earned patina, as it contrasts so nicely with the paint color. I distressed the tables lightly along the corners and raised surfaces and then sealed them with dark wax.