Petty Home: Slowly collecting adult furniture

There has been a nice, long, much needed break after moving in and getting the house mostly livable. We've only just begun to get motivated and tackle new projects. In the works are a lot of big plans for the front and back yard... stay tuned! Inside, the most glaring thing is the lack of our "adult furniture." In this installment, we'll talk a little about the pieces we've started collecting.

This corner cupboard was built in North Carolina around 1810 and came to us by way of a generous gift from Nellie's Uncle Charlie, who felt the piece would do well in its state of origin. Charlie's home in Pennsylvania is full of unusual antiques that he has collected, resorted, and researched. The space left by the cupboard will make make room for another grandfather clock restoration. At various times of the day (and night) the clocks in the house all gong the hour. This cupboard is a wonderful, belated wedding gift. The photo doesn't really do it justice, but it's a really gorgeous piece made of solid walnut, that fits well with the style of our home.

On a recent trip to Greensboro, our good friend Erica introduced us to The Red Collection--a fantastic consignment shop. Nellie found some great old cabinets that were probably intended to be serving pieces in a formal dining room. They weren't in the best condition, but were a pretty amazing deal so we snatched them both up.

All the restoration folks we talked to said the quickest, cheapest, and most rewarding way to restore furniture was to use Howard's Restore-a-Finish. The cabinets weren't in terrible shape but had some water marks and nicks that, if corrected, would really make them shine.

The product just goes on over top the existing finish with no major prep. You wipe it on and then wipe off with a dry cloth. We did take a bit of fine steal wool to some of the more stubborn spots before applying the Restore-a-Finish.

This project did take the better part of our Saturday, but luckily it was a nice day for hanging on the porch.

Nellie is a hard worker on projects like this.

After the Restore-a-finish stain goes on, you're supposed to seal the deal with Howard's Feed-n-Wax which really brings out the shine and helps protect and condition the wood. You basically glop it on, wait 20 minutes, then wipe off the excess and buff. It smells fantastic--orange oil and beeswax.

At this point we thought the project was complete. But upon taking a closer look at the drawer pulls, we realized the black handles were not the original patina. So we brought out the brass polish and got to work.

Here you can see what they looked like before and after. We briefly toyed with the idea of spray-painting the handles, but I'm glad we decided not to. The brass is worn off in a few places and if we get finicky we could have them re-plated... probably not.