I found these two cabinets online, on the garage sale site. A friend of mine was selling and I loved the tall cabinet, didn’t have a need for the smaller one but my friend made me a bargain I could not refuse (which doesn’t take much when it comes to old furniture).
These two beautiful pieces just needed some TLC and some paint. A few things I look for when purchasing old furniture (online and in person):
Are there any broken legs? Legs are hard to fix at times or cannot be replaced. That is a deal breaker for me.
Is there any water damage? Water damage is hard to cover up, deal with and replace. That gets costly and takes more time. Sometimes, the furniture will have a musty smell that won’t go away from the water damage or mold can be growing (which is not good for those in the home around the piece of furniture).
How many layers are there? Furniture can have LOTS of layers of varnish, paint, paper coverings, etc. I bought one small side table about 8 years ago, it had 5 layers of paint on it. It took forever to strip of those layers. I had no clue when I bought it. But I can tell now, by really looking closely, looking at the bottom of the legs and underneath the piece, can give away the layers.
Do the drawers work? If you need the piece of furniture for storage, make sure the drawers work. A lot of time, I get furniture that the drawers are damaged or hard to use. They need sanded down to slide or pieces need replaced to make the drawer slide in smoother. Check the drawers.
I normally like to paint but will stain furniture from time to time. I am going to paint these two pieces two different colors (cornflower blue with grey undertones and a moss green). So excited to share how they turned out next week!
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