Made to Last

I am such a believer in the benefits of re-inventing old furniture. There are the obvious benefits to the planet which come from re-cycling, combined with the possibility of creating something which is unique and tailored to your own home. Equally important for me is the ‘made to last’ quality of old furniture, which can be bought so cheaply.

Under much duress, I recently bought a not so cheap, flat packed dressing table for my teenage daughter’s bedroom. Believe me, I didn’t want to do it, but she flatly refused my offers to paint something for her.  Anybody who has a teenage daughter will know that to argue is futile!

Within a matter of weeks the drawer has fallen to pieces and I have since squirted large amounts of wood glue into the grooves in an attempt to hold it together.

Here are a couple of pieces I bought from a second hand furniture shop recently. Both looked very tired, but both are very well made and importantly are very useful pieces of furniture. I painted and distressed the exteriors and then added a selection of my stencils to the pull down desk tops. Both pieces took center stage in the shop window for a few weeks. Last week they both sold to different people within a day of each other.

I have no idea how long these pieces of furniture will be around in their present form, but I feel very confident that they will long outlast the flat packed dressing table in my daughter’s room.