Friday, April 25, 2014

slaying the behemoth

A very long time ago I became the owner of a piece of furniture that I hated. HATED. It is a good piece, well made. great bones etc etc but that doesn’t change a thing if you hate it. I knew that it had good lines to it and that one day I would give it a face lift and it’s old granny panties look would be gone and would be replaced with something a little more sexy. But for 10 years, possibly more, those granny panties have stared at me.


A little polish might have helped and for sure some TLC
That green silk killed me
Nasty old handles....see ya


So there she is, the monster, the elephant in the room, the big nasty, the granny panties. And seriously what the heck was with the green silk fabric lining the back? Vomitous for sure. For 10+ years I’ve looked at this thing and it has matched nothing. 
Now I have to add a quick disclaimer here: many people I spoke to about it were outraged that I would even think about touching a piece of American made furniture from the early 50′s. As you can see it has an inlay all around the bottom half. The top drawer is also a pull down, leather inlayed writing desk. I researched the company in Michigan and it closed in the late 50′s this was made towards the end. It’s nice, there is no denying it but it isn’t nice if I hate it and it does me no good. people told me to sell it. I live in Miami, there is no market for this here at all. NONE. So I spoke to the furniture boss. he said what I knew, if it is worth anything at all, you are only lessening it’s value to you, someone that really wants it will remove all the changes and restore it to it’s original glory ( it never had any glory in my eyes). That was all I needed to here before bolting out the door to Home Depot.

This is by far the biggest and heaviest piece of furniture that I have taken on. I also learn a little more, by trial and error each time so I knew it was going to take time. I was worried that the power tools would rattle the glass loose or shatter it so I had to go slow. No rushing which isn’t like me I am fast by nature. Once I had it all stripped down and taken apart I could start the fun part and rebuild it, my way. I was like a kid on Christmas morning. It was a lot easier than I thought and went a lot smoother.


looking modern and sexy already
Bye bye silk
I spray painted the keys metallic silver to match the new hardware.
Bye Bye Granny Panties...hello fabulous. 

I love it. I really really love. It kicked my bum a couple of times. There was a public cry on Facebook for help to my Daddy, thankfully my sister saw it and was able to help. I wish I lived somewhere were people wanted this type of work done cos I would say...let me do it for you but alas here everything gets tossed in the trash. Paint/stain, changes everything. So what if it's old, if you don't like, change it. For $40 and a lot of hard work I saved $1000's. I had a slight incident with an electric sander that rendered one finger useless when doing my real job, I am still not exactly sure what I did to my big toe but I'm sure it involved trying to lift the behemoth granny panties, alone but I don't care.

Try it one time, you will love it and you will be hooked, nothing in your house will be sacred.

3 comments:

  1. Love, love love!! I'm with with you...it had great bones but ugly, ugly finish! Fabulous make-over!

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  2. Love it! Good job!!!

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