A few nights ago Matt commented to me that our house has too much flat-pack and not enough vintage.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
The very next day, I found this beauty on the side of the road.
I literally did a double take as I drove by, but continued on to pick up my son from daycare. We swung by on the way back home for some Mommy-Son bonding time (read: he cried while I muscled this thing into my minuscule car and drove a block with my trunk open #safetyFirst). The drawers need some repair and the whole thing needs refinishing, but it’s all completely doable and I even have a spot for it in our living room.
On Saturday I had a friend visiting from out of town, so naturally we went to the cluster of antique/vintage stores. Outside of one was a shabby looking MCM desk that was clearly in the process of being rehabbed. All the repair/refinshing work was stuff I could do, so I scored this puppy for $40!
One of the drawer fronts needs to be re-glued, the damaged edging needs to be pried off and replaced, and the whole thing needs to be stripped and re-stained. Someone must have refinished it at one point and did a TERRIBLE job with the stain. It’s splotchy and streaky and horrible, which means it just needs to come off. I’m currently planning a dark stain with white drawer fronts, I just need to figure out what hardware I want on the drawers…possibly cup pulls, we’ll see.
I also (still) have my bank of vintage post office boxes. I love these SO much, I’m just unsure how I really want to finish them.
They also got some paint on them while I was working on another project. I tried to wipe it off right away and failed, so now it just looks like a bird crapped on it. Classy.
On top of all of that, I have a vintage sewing machine table. The machine is fabulous, but it’s built into the table which was causing space issues in our study layout. I bought a new sewing machine and this one is going to my mom. If I get in a serious refinishing groove, I’d like to try and strip and re-stain this as well… especially since I’m responsible for the black paint. We all make poor life choices at some time or another….
So with all of that, this is the current state of our front porch:
Please don’t report me to Hoarders…
In the past I’ve done refinishing work out here because the space is well ventilated and enclosed (plus, the carpet’s crap so I don’t have much guilt if I drip something and it misses the dropcloth). Unfortunately, I don’t want this to be a working space with Wesley crawling around because there’s too many dangerous things a baby can get into in a refinishing project. I’m probably going to end up setting up shop in our garage and trying to get everything done before it snows.
In semi-related news, I passed a furniture refinishing and repair place that’s hiring. Not gonna lie, I’m really tempted to apply just so I can put “stripper” on my resume. Unfortunately they’re only hiring part-time. Still might be worth it if I could get an employee discount on reupholstering my couch….