I like old furniture. What I really like is the scraggly stuff that has been painted a bajillion times. Over the years I've become pretty good at spotting pieces with "potential." A little over a year ago, I found a little telephone stand for sale at one of my favorite antique places.
It was painted brown with an oh-so-attractive faux wood grain. In place of the original hardware a beautiful, gold gilded pull and equally lovely, heart shaped pull had been added. Underneath it all though, was a very solid (and really, really heavy) hardwood.
I talked the owner into selling it to me for $28. I figured that even if I removed the paint and it was still hideous, I wouldn't be out much.
So, I started to remove the many layers of paint. I expected to find oak. What I found surprised me. First, it wasn't oak - although I'm not sure what species the wood actually is (maybe elm). Next instead of being stained in a typical brown, it was stained in a very folk art red and green. It is pretty clear that this little piece was handmade.
It took me forever to get off all of the paint 
layers. Then I restained using the original colors. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Furniture Refinished
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4 comments:
Aw, it's adorable. You found a little treasure! We have made quite a few of the pieces in our house from salvage.
What a great find -- and a great job stripping it and restaining. It's always nice when the end result is so worth all the effort.
That turned out nice--what a great find!
That looks great! You did really nice work. (Just a guy browsing around, looking for other people doing bungalow renovations around town.)
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