Featured Brown Furniture popular again?

[QUOTE="lizjewel Oh, yes... I hear you loud and clear! LOL... We finally, after many years built our own home - and I thought white or ivory was "standard". I chose ivory as I preferred it over white. Fast forward a number of years and we needed replacement appliances for the pieces which had exceeded their life and guess what! NO IVORY! there was BONE, SAND, ECRU... no Ivory... and of course, they are different in color! Lesson learned! I'm replacing everything with WHITE! No stainless for me... as THAT will be hard to get in a few years too! They will make it "brushed" or "nickel" or "textured" or some such thing making it impossible to match! And when we went to replace the fridge... stainless was $5 more than white! I didn't fall for it! HA!

My other brush with "color" was the first house we moved into after we got married. They had redone the kitchen with the latest fad color with burnt orange counters - and a brown stove - uck. But at least they were new. The fridge had not been replaced and worked "fine"... a big ole beheamouth Fridgedaire which had a icebox as big as a pint ice cream container! At the time I worked for a hardware and my husband travelled on business all week.

We had gotten some cool new cans of spray paint in at the hardware... and there was a line of "enamel paint" for appliances. So, to surprise my hubby I bought some brown spray paint for the fridge. I carefully masked the handle and laid newspaper down on the floor and taped some up behind and around the fridge... and set to work one night. It seemed to cover great and the 2 cans were "enough"! I then stepped back to view my project and in HORROR realized that I had "oversprayed" the ENTIRE kitchen! The white floors, the burnt orange countertops, the dishes in the sink, the windows, the sink, the door, and EVERYTHING within a 12' radius! OMG!

I knew I had to work fast, as the longer it dried the harder it would be to take off! Frantically I found paint remover and set to work. It was many many hours into the wee morning before I decided that it was presentable. Had to wash literally EVERYTHING after I used paint remover on all of it. I definitely learned my lesson there!

Oh to be young and to have had that kind of energy! LOL!

Cheerio Leslie

 

@James Conrad Those pieces are SO well done! Wow!

 

YES! they are. THAT'S! what I am talking about although I get the feeling most of the posters here are into or talking about the Ma & Pa Kettle system of painted furniture.
There IS another way folks and it's been going on for centuries in America.

 

I am not sure that is the point, The transformation of this Chest to the final result is a master piece of work. I was really impressed. I scrolled down and saw the old chest before image and chuckled as it was an ugly monsterous piece of furniture but i was stunned at the transformation. That is a very good example of how you can upscale furniture. At least in my opinion that is what i took away from the post. I agree with you that the 17th Century chest looks great, consdiering how old it is. Is it really 1600's or do you mean 1700's if only they just kept it simple.

 

LOL, I am starting to understand now why Book's pal went ballistic! the other day!

 

Indeed.
It was decorated by a professional with a trained eye, no doubt about it.

 

1680-1700, side hung drawers so very early.
I am very familiar with that form, I bid on one that was stripped in the recent past. They are joined chests so built right at the change from joiner built to cabinetmaker built furniture.
There is a thread in here that examines the chest I was interested in.

 

This is two Side hung drawers joined together.

So there are two bases joined, the first base cut from bottom and then the second base cut from top and joined, making 4 drawers rather than 2 and then almost doubling the height of the origional base, and then doubling the top by joining the two tops.

Am i reading you right on this. The base and top do look very chunky. Well it is a lovely chest. Very American with omg! the Indians are coming style.

 

No, side hung drawers refers to a groove cut into the drawer side and rides on a runner usually nailed inside the frame/carcass of the chest.
pilgrim chest, 1680-1700 Boston


Drawer side from the same chest, notice the strip repair that was required after millions of drawer openings made the groove to large


Pilgrim Square Table 1660-1680, single drawer pulled out to see the side, similar situation but here they left the widened groove and replaced the runners inside table

 

The above examples are Pilgrim Century style, 1620-1720.
This furniture was built by joiners, not cabinetmakers and the construction is totally different than 18th-century colonial furniture.
If this makes any sense.

 

Of course I understand now, yep. I think that was the right under my nose

I would love to learn more about furniture. I have studied asian art but as I attend auctions just for that Chinese Qianlong teapot, I find I am as interested if not more interested in the furniture or at least sometimes, sometimes the security that comes with the porcelain market is reassuring, with furniture you have storage and space issues, it .ight be a beautiful georgian sideboard or wardrobe but where do you store it for the next decade while you wait for the market to get bullish again ( I built a store out of tarp in the backgarden just to get some space from all the furniture, it can drive me mad) I will bring it back in again of course but it is so i can breath and re-design my livign space. The attic has chairs and all the things your not meant to put there ( but our climatge is so mild it shoudl be okay for a little while.

In comparison to porcelain, furniture is more substantial and can be quite beautiful. Also you need some rich mahogany to display all that chinese blue and white. I think furniture will have it's day again and it would be damn smart to learn what everything is and have a small collection to leave the grandchildren.

So that is the life of a furniture junky, breaking all the rules, but really is meant to be only focused on asian art. Just cannot help himself.

 

Thanks James, for such a descriptive and educational post and I appreciate the pictures.

 

Yes to me the original has more depth of interest to it. Just needed to be restored.
I dont think the painted version is awful, but I do not see an improvement.

 

I rather liked the Deco ones. What really irks me is when someone paints really nice wood. Or does a strip and bad 80s refinishing job on something formerly a really nice antique. I just saw quarter-sawn oak with brand new hardware that absolutely didn't coordinate, and stripped and polyrurethaned to boot. UGH.

 

JEEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
They are in a plastic baggie in the bottom drawer!

 

LOL, well you know, just trying to ease the anxiety of the provincials by creating a furniture fantasy.
Here we have a complete piece of 20th century JUNK! which was but a small step away from the dumpster and, along comes a professional decorator with some real talent that transforms said junk into a work of art.
Which BTW also turns it into a desirable piece that will sell for very good money as well as saving it for many years from said dumpster and you guys wanna complain about drawer pulls???

 

LOL, actually, I didn't say that in the "quote box" but I agree with whoever did!