A French Provincial Hutch in Pale Blue

It's funny, I got three separate messages from people on Facebook when this hutch went up for sale at a great price on a local BUY/SELL/TRADE page. I appreciate ya'll constantly keeping an eye out for great furniture for me!
         And obviously I needed this hutch. I love hutches, and this is a dynamite one. Mid 20th century, cherry and poplar, great form, great scale, heavy as a pregnant elephant.
          To highlight the French Provincial lines of the piece I went with a custom mixed chalky blue gray, distressed and waxed to perfection, with a pale pale blue for the interior. I kept the original pulls on the lower doors but swapped out the ones on the top doors for knobs that were just a bit bigger. I left the very inside edge around all the magnificent windows in the original rich wood tone to really maximize their effect. It took a lot of work with a detail brush and a steady hand, but I just love how it turned out.

An Antique Cedar Chest in Lavender

I love this cedar chest! Love love love! I got it on a house call last Thursday and it was a disaster. It's probably from about 1920, the earliest cedar chest I've had yet. If you're interested in more variations on cedar chests, you can check out my blog post on them here. Loosely speaking this one is William and Mary in form, though so over the top with applied carving, molding, and turnings as to be a form all it's own. Look at the shield and sunflowers, spectacular!!!
      I had to fill a lot of little nicks and scratches and then painted the case in a custom mixed hazy purple/almost gray that I've named ' Lavender Smoke'. I distressed it and sealed it with wax.

       

A Coffee Table Set in Cream

I picked this sweet little coffee table set up at the end of last week and managed to finish it in time for Saturday's tagsale, but didn't have time to post the photos of it before hand. But it's still available, and ready for a new home!
        The pieces are oak, made my the Riverside Furniture Company. I painted them a pale cream, lightly distressed and sealed with wax. I sanded them fully before applying paint and they're completely sealed so they'e totally washable. I think they're be so sweet in a beach home or vacation cottage!

Top Picks: The ADA Online Show

I had no intention of writing this post. I've got a shit ton on my plate already trying to finish custom orders and prep for my first annual decorator's tagsale. But after a thirteen hour work day, ten of which were in the sun (guess who forgot to put on her sunscreen!), and six of which were spent sanding non-stop, I'm quite literally burnt out. I know I'll wake up fresh and inspired again tomorrow, I always do, but until then, I'm nursing a dirty martini and perusing the ADA Bi-Annual online show. That acronym is 'Antiques Dealers Association of America' and it's a vetted group of the best of the best antiques business in the country. If they just added a 'The' to the title they'd be 'TADAA', as in 'Tadaa, here's the most amazing antiques you never knew existed but suddenly need to own!'.

I was just going to casually flip through the show, not analyze it, or write about it. But the stuff these brilliant dealers have put forth this year??? I'd be such a jerk not to share. You need to go check out the show. Loads of amazing and rare objects, and crazy reasonable prices!! This is your chance to own a little piece of history, a treasure, to adopt an heirloom!
http://adadealers.com/antiques/index.php?page=search&s_res=AND&cid=333&hw_num=90

Here are my favorite pieces, but seriously go look for yourself there's so many beautiful things!

c.1950s carved hand offered by Steve Powers

It's visceral, and so beautiful it's hard to look away.

Direct link with all the info here 

Thistle weathervane offered by Jeffrey Tillou Antiques

I mean, damn. I love weathervanes. And this one, it's breathtaking. The rare and striking form and the verdigris are stunning. 

Direct link with all the info here 

Ugh. I love this. LOOOOVEEEE

I might need it. I've been collecting post impressionist spring landscapes by female artists lately.

And yes, that's the most pretentious sentence I've ever written. But still, this is stunning

Direct link with all the info here 

19th century ambrotype of a firefighter in his uniform.

Ambrotypes were stage 2 of the photography evolution in America, directly after daguerreotypes, which had a sharper image, but as they were printed on polished silver plate, were stupid expensive. 

By about 1863 ambrotypes too were becoming obsolete. And what that tells us is that this is a damn early, likely pre-Civil War image of an exceedingly handsome young man in his firefighter's uniform.

. Oh geez. If I had all the money. All the money ever, or at least enough to buy fancy schmany amazing antique things, I would buy this straight away. A coat of arms from 1768. Wow, just wow. 

Direct link with all the info 

Release the Kraken!

Who says furniture has to be serious all the time, and if ever there was a piece of furniture that deserved a fun cheeky treatment, it's a drink cart. It exists in its very essence as a vehicle with which to transport and serve boozy refreshment at parties- surely it should be over the top and adorable!!
         And with that in mind I refinished the sweet little c.1960 solid maple drink cart. It's in one of my favorite colors of the season, Essex Blue, and has, as you can surely see, a giant octopus crawling up one leaf onto the top, probably the poor guy's just trying to make himself a gin and tonic.
        I sanded the entire frame down, added a second shelf as it had one originally but had lost it at some point, painted the case, hand painted the octopus, distressed everything, and sealed it with wax. The whole thing is ultra durable and washable, so whomever buys this should feel more than welcome to spill a glass of wine on it.