An Antique Desk in Cream

Isn't this desk adorable? So cute! I've never seen one quite like it, so much detail, and you've got to know, all the cyma curves were not easy for the original cabinet maker to create! The piece likely dates to the 1940s, it's solid maple, and has the original wrought iron drawer pulls. I loved it as soon as I laid eyes on it at a church tagsale this past Saturday.
          To lighten the desk up a bit I painted it in a fresh, antique white with just a few of the curvier bits highlighted in dark blue, distressed and sealed with dark wax. I sanded the old chipped and scratched varnish off the top and stained it in a darker shade, to make the exceptional woodgrain pop. I sealed it with high gloss oil based poly for an impervious and mirror perfect finish. I kept the original hardware because I love how the chunky dimensions play off the delicate scrolled lines of the piece.

A $10 Antique Dresser

This one was bad. Bad bad bad. Let's start with the spiders. There's always this moment when I'm buying antique furniture, when it gets flipped over to be placed on its top in the back of my truck, and suddenly ARACHNOPHOBIA. Thousands of pieces of furniture and the shock and drop in my stomach never goes away. I HATE spiders.
        It was spidery and the veneer was a disaster. Someone had put big ugly white casters on it, and the drawer bottoms in the two larger drawers had come out of their slots and were dragging hard against the drawer stops, making them all but impossible to open and close. It had a handful of non original pulls, and the top was nothing but water marks, rings, chips, and bubbling. Basically, It had every problem.
          But at $10 it was worth saving.
          I've walked you through the step by step process to repairing chipped veneer and removing veneer tops before so I won't labor the point, but it was many hours of work to get this gal back on her feet and ready for the surface work (the fun part). I had an glorious 19th century solid oak dresser mirror stored away and I knew it would be perfect for this piece, so after removing the damaged veneer top and refinishing the poplar below and painting the case in a soft blue I added the mirror, painted to match. I kept some of the existing drawer pulls, just for the top drawers, and complimented them with salvaged antique pulls for the lower drawers. I removed the casters distressed and sealed the paint and bing, bang, boom, the dresser is a lovely once more.

An Antique Oak Side Table in Green

I haven't kept a piece of my own furniture in a long while. My house is pretty much set, and I've swapped and rotated and upgraded to the point where I'm quite satisfied with what I have and where it is. Which makes it hard when I see a piece come through my inventory that I just love. And usually I have to suck it up and sell it. I also very rarely keep furniture that is in flawless condition. If I can sell it, I will.

            But every now and then something will come along that I just have to have, and then I justify keeping it in about seven different ways, to keep the guilt at bay. This little antique oak side table, it's the bees knees, and has two fatal flaws that were enough to tip the scales in favor of adopting it.

           The side table was given to me, so I had no money in it (all the more reason to keep it!), and is from about 1890. It's got both an early paper label and an extensive stencil on the backboard. The stencil has a patent date of 1888. It's 100% solid oak and was at some point olive green, though it had been stripped and refinished a while back. At some early point, an owner, possibly the first owner, cut a notch out of the back left corner of the top, to fit around molding, I suspect. I know it was an early modification because the notch shows the signs of the early 20th century green paint, and of course the later refinish. One of the magnificent applied oak leaf carvings is also missing a tiny section. Surely this means I can't sell it. Surely this means I must keep it.

           I refinished the top, and painted the case in one of my favorite spring greens, with a white interior. I used dark wax to highlight the flower carving on the door, and I kept the spectacular original oak leaf and acorn brass pulls, In all my furniture refinishing years, I've never seen such a handsome pair of pulls. I'll be putting the little side table next to an antique velvet settee in the reading nook in our master bedroom.

An Antique Pine Dresser in Mustard Yellow

So as opposed to the tiger oak dresser I just showed you, this dresser, which I also finished today, needed to be re-built basically from the ground up. It's solid pine, cottage style, and made right around 1850-1875. It's got great lines and had so much potential, but man, it was in dire need of an overhaul. The backboard was basically gone, and without its stability the piece had had a bad sway for god knows how long, and the more it swayed, the loser the case got. Also, after a hundred and fifty years the original glue was all but gone, so ever single drawer guide had to be re-attached, and every single drawer bottom had to be re-set and nailed.

        And after hours of structure work, and a brand spanking new backboard, I decided to go whole hog and paint it in a crazy color that I like, but might be too scary for some of you. But tough shit, I love mustard yellow and with this dresser, I feel like I earned a little self indulgence. And it looks wicked awesome in the mustard, right???

       I kept the original drawer pulls and lightly distressed and waxed the case to seal it. I normally sand, stain, and seal my dresser tops, but I know that this one was originally painted top to bottom, so it felt right to keep that style now.

An Antique Tiger Oak Dresser

I would say about 90% of my furniture work is all about the paint. I spend long hours fretting over colors and distressing, and what knobs to coordinate with the colors. This antique c.1900 solid oak dresser, however, is all about the wood. It was dark and dreary when I got it, but I knew that under the old time worn stain was some truly spectacular figured wood, and I wasn't disappointed after I sanded and re-stained all the drawer fronts and the top. I mean wowsa!! Just look at it. 

       I painted the case in a soft cream and very lightly distressed it before sealing it with dark wax, just so it highlighted the bold wood even more. I kept the original oak drawer pulls and the brass escutcheon plates. All the drawers work perfectly and it's sturdy as rock!

And I staged it with peonies straight from my garden. I love this time of year when I don't have to buy flowers once a week for staging. Means more money to spend at the flea market!!