Thursday, June 15, 2017

A Maple Shelf in Pink

I know I've told you this before, but it demands reiteration; vintage maple furniture is an excellent investment. A few days ago I got a message from one of the followers of the Heir and Space facebook page. Her friend's husband had a truck full of furniture he was planning to take to the dump, and would I like it instead? There were no pictures, and I was hesitant, often it's not finding furniture to flip that's the challenge, it's finding the space for it. The husband and his son unloaded all the pieces, artwork, a vintage floor scale, an art deco armoire (that's probably too rough to save), and this wonderful little maple bookshelf.
       The bookshelf caught my immediately, the jewel of the driveway unload, mid 20th century, probably from about 1950, and 100% solid rock maple, it was sturdy and strong, and still retained its original heinous opaque orange-y varnish. Such a perfect candidate for upcycling! I photographed it and put it up available for custom refinishing on my facebook page (Pro-tip if you're not following Heir and Space on facebook, you're missing ALL the action! facebook.com/heirandspace/ ). Clearly I wasn't the only one enamored by this cutie, I had six offers within a minute! It sold to a lovely new client who's going to put it in her daughter's room. She opted for a soft dusty rose, pale gray, and gold flowers. She left most of the design details for me to hammer out, I always appreciate when a client trusts me. 
         Given that we went with a pale rose shade for the exterior color, I decided roses would be a nice touch to trail up the sides of the piece. After I finished applying the rose and gray colors I sketched the roses in pencil, then filled them in with gold oil based paint, then rose gold to highlight- which means, yes, they are rose gold roses on rose paint. Ha! I refinished the superb solid maple top and stained it darker. lightly distressed the entire piece, and sealed it with dark wax.







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