A lady posted a trunk for sale recently on a local antiques auction page on facebook. It had been painted a pale blue.
Someone (in a very rude manner) commented to her that she had ruined it by painting it, because "no one wants painted furniture, they want it restored". (The funny thing was, the one who had it for sale did not paint it, the trunk was painted when she got it. She tried to explain that to the rude lady, to no avail)
That led to a lengthy online discussion, in which the one who had made the comment kept getting ruder, and just before the administrator was about to ban her, she dropped out.
Really. If you don't like something someone posts, can't you just scroll past it? Apparently, her mother never taught her the old "if you don't have anything nice to say" mantra.
Anyway.
My thoughts - if someone thinks "no one wants painted furniture", they have never looked at Pinterest!
I'd rather not see a "nice" piece of wood furniture painted, but if it has flaws & dings & stains, they why not?
Perfect example.......
The before. But not totally before. We picked this up at an auction, and when we got it home, we realized the dirt on top was more than just dirt. It was........ well. we're not sure what it was, but it was nasty.
Soap and water didn't touch it. So George took the orbital sander to it, and got rid of all the nastiness. But there were still plenty of areas that didn't look so great. I don't normally paint oak furniture, but....
This time I did, and it went from being drab to fab! And it sold quickly, which is always a good thing.
No before pictures, but I recently painted these pieces......
This table was a very dark brown. You know that old furniture that is very dark? Was that the color of stain and varnish they used back in the day? Or did it darken with time?
The red makes it much, much cheerier.
I've had this table in the shop for a LONG time. Too long. But I liked it so much, I hung onto it. It was a light brown. I finally put it on clearance, but for whatever reason, it didn't even sell at half off. Okay then. I used the same red paint on it. We'll see if that draws more attention.
While I had the paint out, I grabbed this table too. It was a medium brown, but all scratched up and tired looking. Again, I think the paint gave it a new life.
Should antiques be painted? The best advice I ever heard was an antiques expert on a TV show. He said to make the piece something you love, and something that will make you smile every time you look at it. Whether that is leaving it in it's original condition, restoring it, or painting it.
A wise man.
