Friday, May 27, 2011

Family Resemblence


She's beautiful even with all her imperfections.  Look. At. Those. Feet.  In her magnificent sturdiness I told the Mr. that she reminds me so much of my Great Grandma Ethel.  GG Ethel crossed the prairie in a covered wagon, she was strong, but sweet, soft and oh so good natured.  She would have loved this piece because of it's bountiful storage and practicality, but also because it was lovely.  Ethel the buffet came with more than a few blemishes.  A project left long forgotten in a workshop, she showed years of use and neglect.  Her top was in a sorry state from it's practical use in the workshop with burn marks, small divits, and warn off finish.  The first thing we did as we cleaned her up was replace the extremely rain warped back.  Ethel was missing her backboard and that needed replacing.  Her pulls were somewhat mismatched and a few were broken, so we elected to replace all of those.  Once she was structurally shored back up and well sanded I primed her and gave her a couple of quick coats of SW Sea Salt.  It's a nice green/gray that in some lights reads blue/gray.  
I decided to do a stain/antiquing process, light distressing, and buffed her up with a couple coats of wax.  I love this piece.  She's a large presence of beauty in any room. 
Drool over these lovely feet.
Here's a close up of her new pulls.  My 5 year old actually insisted, and goofy me I initially resisted since the advice was coming from someone who is currently obsessed with lions.  ("I know I'm a girl, but I'd really rather be a lion.")  Then I stopped and looked hard and wondered why I can be such an idiot sometimes.  Lion pulls are PERFECT for Ethel!  Ethel has many admirers now with her paint job, perfect hardware, original velvet lined drawer, and original birdseye maple drawer bottoms.  She is looking for a lovely home to join, if I can bare to let her go!! 
Thanks for stopping by to meet Ethel. 

Happy Memorial Day everyone, please remember to thank our Service Men and Women, both past and present for all they do!
Deb

1 comment:

  1. Wow, she was surely a beauty in her time with the tiger oak and birdseye maple! She looks great all renewed in white too!

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