Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Because Furniture Should Be Fun

I always have a bit of chuckle when I see an angry person write something like "Ugh I'm SO sick of this painted furniture fad". Oh dear uneducated and befuddled troll, the things you don't know could raise the Titanic. Painted furniture is as American as apple pie and baseball. We've been painting furniture in America for as long as we've been making furniture in America, like seriously, there's an excellent group of painted blanket chests that were done in the Connecticut River Valley right around 1700. There's a spectacular grain painted highboy c.1780 in the furniture collection at Yale. Everything that could be tied down long enough was painted in the most wonderfully wild colors between 1805 and 1850. Then there was all the painted cottage furniture made from 1880-1910.
I'll do a nice long post showing you examples of painted furniture through the three last centuries some day when I'm not absolutely slammed with custom work. Suffice it to say, our fathers, father's fathers, and founding fathers all knew that painted furniture was super awesome fantastic, and if George Washington was a fan, who are we to argue.
          And so in that most time honored legacy I've painted this adorable c.1930 vanity in a splashy shade of blue (Benjamin Moore's Pool Blue, actually). I had to repair some of the decorative appliqué, refinished the superb top, highlighted all the decorative work with a paler shade of blue, and swapped the pulls for cobalt glass ones, for even more sparkle.
            I just love how this piece turned out! So fun, so fresh, so cheeky! Just as furniture should be
:-)

Also yes, I've staged this with a bouquet of ragweed. I make the rules around here, deal with it.







3 comments:

  1. I have this same dresser
    But im afraid to paint it
    You did a wonderful job on it
    Thanks for the inspiration

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would love a post about painted furniture through the years.

    ReplyDelete