Monday, October 18, 2010

Free Fresher-Upper

Happy Monday Everyone!

I am now officially one of those bloggers who has to say, "I'm a terrible blogger because I forgot to take a 'before' picture!"  But anyway, the "befores" are embarrassing.  That's not to say I haven't embarrassed myself more than once in this blog already, including that I have just typed "embarrassed" eight different ways and haven't spelled it correctly yet.  So I'll just be embarrassed for that instead of my horrible "before."  And, through the magic of spell-check, I just learned that "embarrassed" has two "Rs."  For such a nerd, I sure aint too bright.


Moving on to an actual topic for today's post...before my trip I caught this bug about lightening up my china cabinet.  I've had spastic thoughts about refinishing this cabinet, but in the meantime I just wanted a more unified look.  If I could show you a "before" you would see a ton of mismatched glassware, ceramics, and serving bowls, as well as random decorative stuff thrown in.

Now, you will see this:


The cabinet is an antique which I feel privileged to have in my home, but you can see in these pictures that it might need to be refinished at some point.  I pulled the china out of storage and most it, too, is quite old.  It is Johnson Brothers "The Jewel," and I love the colors in this pattern.  I especially love the pale yellow that picks up on my wall color in the dining room.



I left my crystal champagne flutes, because I want to use them and I just won't if they are packed up somewhere.  For fun, I added a pile of corks...


and a ceramic pumpkin as my little shout-out to the season.  Easy breezy!


I also left in some white serving pieces as well as my Lladro.  If I was getting really serious about a streamlined look, I'd need to take that stuff out too, but baby steps are okay for now!  I just love that I was able to get a more cohesive look without buying anything new.

What do you think?  Better than before?  I guess you have no way of knowing...so, tell me instead... how would you refinish this furniture?  Keep the wood tone?  Or paint it?!?  Would you paper the back?  Add a mirror?  I'd love to hear it!

2 comments:

  1. Michelle,

    I bow down to you. I am so bad at this kind of thing. How I buy it at the store is how it remains at my house. I'm lucky that my Dad makes original furniture for me, otherwise I'd be an episode straight out of "Friends." (Remember the apothecary table episode?) Anytime you want to come over and give me some tips, I'll take 'em! Hope all is well!

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  2. Wow, what a gorgeous piece of furniture, love your china cabinet. I've never had one and now don't have room for one. I don't have any fancy china either, just my good old everyday stuff but it would look nice in a cabinet I think. I have a mish mash of different things but do have some pieces of Fiesta Ware. I'd be happy to have glass door fronts on my upper cupboards.
    Wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

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