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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