Furniture with a History
My maternal grandmother (Mom Mom) had a curved tiger oak china cabinet. I remember that she kept her crystal glasses, dishes, some serving pieces, and some knickknacks it it. When I was a little girl, I walked the 3 blocks to her home and spent every Saturday night with her. After she pulled two place setting out of that china cabinet, we would eat cheesesteaks. Then we would watch The Carol Burnett Show and The Bob Newhart Show. When she passed away, my Mom made sure that tiger oak curved china cabinet was gifted to me! For the past almost 30 years, it has housed my doll collection in my bedroom. I’ve added dolls that my mom and my MIL gave to my girls when they were little. I’ve added my Raggedy Ann dolls and my daughter’s Raggedy Ann dolls. When my Mom and Dad moved in with us in 2014, my Mom Mom’s childhood doll joined the collection.
I have decided that it is time to pare down. I will keep my favorite dolls, pass my daughters’ dolls along to each of them, and treasure my Mom Mom’s doll. The china cabinet will be relocated to MY dining room to hold my crystal glasses and perhaps some china.
Clumsy Causes Problems
About 6 years ago, while getting our Christmas decor from the attic, I knocked the ladder over and it struck the china cabinet breaking one of the curve panes of glass. I was distraught! One millimeter to the right and the glass would have been spared. Just my luck!
Thrift Store to the Rescue
About 3 years ago, I saw a china cabinet at the thrift store for $40.
All of the glass was there but the door glass was not installed. So I bought it with the intention of using the glass to replace the broken glass in my own treasured china cabinet. Fast forward to this week…I pulled that china cabinet out of the storage shed, removed one of the curved panels and proudly brought it to my Dining Room Reclaimed project. Guess what…it’s too big!!! Curses!
I made a quick trip to the local glass shop who had done all of my glass work for my store, The Blue Building Antiques over the past 12 years. Unfortunately, their source for curved glass had recently passed away. They will be contacting their other craftsman in Miami for a price. That last sentence tells me that this will not be a reasonable priced repair. So, in the meantime, my beauty shall remain 1/3 glassless.
This revelation meant one other thing. Now I can reinstall the glass in the second china cabinet and this piece will remain intact. My plan originally was to remove all of the glass and just use this cabinet for linen display. Now it will remain a fully functioning china cabinet! And I will probably still use it primarily for linens. Mom Mom’s china cabinet, however, will proudly hold my china or my crystal in wait for me to find a replacement piece of curved glass in the exact dimensions.
REPAINTING
As I worked on the newer china cabinet, I realized that this would not be a quick paint job. It was painted red. If you have ever worked with red paint, red is never easy. It takes several coats for full coverage and even more coats simply to cover it. When I found the cabinet at our local thrift store, the door glass was present but not installed. It was taped inside of the cabinet in need of replacing into the door. I left the glass out for this stage simply because it is easier than painting with the glass installed. The removal of the glass is tedious so I did not remove the only installed piece. I grabbed my Frogtape and taped off the glass ensuring a tight seal between the tape and the glass. This is key for a smooth seamless paint application. The goal is always to have zero paint on the glass or in the space between the glass and the furniture. Frogtape is the best product for this end result. So, I grabbed the primer and put on two coats.
There was some minor repair needed to the pegs that hold the shelves. I had to remove the pegs to remove the glass that turned out to be too wide. So, I bought a dowel, drilled out the old pegs, and dry fitted the new pegs. The glass would need to be installed before the new pegs were glued into place.
Always the Unexpected
It was during the process of cutting the dowels for the shelf pegs that I actually realized…there are not shelves in this unit! So off to Home Depot I went to buy some wood to fabricate curved shelved for this $40 china cabinet that was consuming all of my Week 4 time on the Dining Room Reclaimed.
If you’ve never worked with replacing glass in an antique piece of furniture, it is quite stressful. Most of the glass is very old so if it breaks it is very difficult to replace. The glass usually sits on a small ledge in the china cabinet. It is secure by placing a small thin piece of wood along the edge of the glass. The small strip of wood is then secured to the unit by…well… by staple or nail. And yes, no matter how many times I have installed or removed glass in a china cabinet, it is always always always disturbing to have to install the small strip with staples or nails.
I mean honestly…would you want to use these tools on glass??
And so, I am taking my time in replacing these two glass panels. Cross your fingers!
Fabric and Unexpected Colors
One other task I needed to complete this week was the purchase of my fabric for my curtains. I needed to have this on hand to ensure I was selecting complimentary colors with which to paint the second china cabinet. Here it is:
I had purple in mind for this china cabinet but I needed to see the colors with the fabric. This actually made the process more difficult as there were many other choices for color. Here are the finalists:
I gave the red two generous coats of white Kilz. Then I painted the inside white. I will possibly stencil a light design on the white back inside of the china cabinets. Right now I am trying to decide if the color I selected it too bright! I selected, of course, the brightest of the choices above…Peru.
And so, while I thought this would be an easy week it turned into a very slow and frustrating week. We did, however, have a great Halloween!
Next step is to install all of the glass in china cabinet #2. Then I will be purging my serving buffet which has never ever been organized. It is full of photos (in the drawers) and every serving piece I have owned since I got married in 1991. With 2 additional small china cabinets in this room, I am ready to sort and store my gorgeous serving linens and items. After all, Thanksgiving is right around the corner!
And thus concludes Week 4 of the ORC! Check out all of the featured designers and guest Guest Participants!
Comments 1