Tuesday, August 12, 2008

. . . revealed the goods




Done at last. . . and here are some of the results. The small pale yellow dresser above was white and gold, with the horrible formica-like finish on it. This was. . . there's no other way to say it. . . a bitch to do. Having too much time on priming, sanding, painting, and sanding and resanding, I didn't opt to buy any new handles for the doors and drawers. I just painted the ones that came off it in a slightly darker yellow and touched them up with black. . . it's just done and I'm glad. I could see this little dresser in a child's room, perhaps.






I have no idea how old this piece could be. Its finish was awful, with lots of black stains deep in the wood, but at least I could sand most of it off without too much effort. It is a Broyhill piece, probably the cleanest overall piece that I had to do. It's nice and solid. I bought the door knobs at Target to replace the nasty old ones, and the color was inspired by a piece I saw in the magazine or catalog. Even displayed in my garage, I like this piece. . . in fact, it may be my favorite of all of them. Wouldn't it be great in a kitchen as an island (put some wheels on it to move it around) or storage unit? I can think of a lot of place one could use this piece.




This little oak chest was in pretty bad shape, too. . . well, actually everything I painted was in pretty bad shape, or it wouldn't have to be painted. One of the supports under one of the big drawers was completely broken, and my husband helped me repair it. This chest was very bright red, and a little jarring, so I used some very diluted black paint and kind of aged the edges to tone it down a bit. The handles are simple grayish-black pulls, and I daubed the keyholes with a bit of black to tie them in with the handles.






The massive breakfront above was lots of fun to do. It's pretty old, made of oak, and was pretty much falling apart when I got it. The carvings on the doors and the backsplash or whatever it is called are great. I reused the old hardware, sanding off as much of the old finish as possible to get them to be mostly a silver color, and then sprayed them with lacquer to keep them from rusting. I had great hopes for this piece, loved it from the first time I saw it, but I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed. . . as my husband says, "it's ponderous." (The reddish cast to the picture is a reflection of the piece above, which is right next to this piece.) I also painted the lamp bases shown on top.





This little table wins the prize for the best unexpected result. I picked up a quart of mistinted Ralph Lauren paint at Home Depot and got this cinnamon color, which turned out pretty cool. I was going to age it a bit, but when I tried that, I decided I like it clean like this so I wiped all the glaze off and left it alone. Unfortunately the mechanism that makes the wings of the table stay up are long gone, and I don't have any idea how to make new ones. But I like the graceful curve the legs . . .


There are a few more pictures to show tomorrow. Tell me what you think. . . would you buy these pieces for your home for a helluva bargain price? I think I would. . .

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the August issue of SPACES. there is a section showing painted furniture. Retro, contemporary.
H

p said...

that looks like a lot of work! wow.

I love the blue one the most :)

Mary Buek said...

H: Yes, I saw that. . . really more art than furniture, wouldn't you say? I can see some of that in your house, can't you? Obviously it's much cooler than the stuff I painted.

Paula: I think I agree, I like the blue one best, too. And yes, it was a lot of work, but kind of fun, too.

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