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Should you paint furniture or keep wood?
Watch out for the wood gods.
Should you paint furniture or keep wood?
While I appreciate highly valuable antiques, in my world, damaged items like these are honored by giving them a makeover. Often they are hiding in a hoard, a vacant room, a project someday pile or a dusty shed – UNUSED! Once painted, they ALWAYS go onto being used and enjoyed by new owners.
Negative Nelly & The Wood Police.
My seller was a lovely lady. However, I’ve come across passionate furniture wood police who HATE anyone painting furniture. The attacks on social media can be quite aggressive at times. I guess, to some, it is not unlike sacrificing ones first born to the paint gods. They must stab them with a paintbrush I imagine!
Wooden furniture is created to serve us – not the other way around. If you’re hanging onto Grans ugly dining set, wishing you could send it to the tip (but the family would be horrified) but if resurfaced creatively, you’d love it – that is madness!
I have but ONE life that very nearly ended over 10 years ago. I’m still here and I am going to enjoy my furniture. You have one life too!
If paint makes furniture look beautiful, suit OUR homes and gives US pleasure, then PAINT! The value in life is rarely about money. We need to give ourselves permission to enjoy OUR furniture because it belongs to US. It doesn’t belong to Negative Nelly who wants to spank us with her keyboard for painting OUR possessions or of those of who we serve! In the past, I’ve offered Negative Nelly the untouched furniture she was so concerned for. She NEVER buys or saves it though. Nor does she feed furniture artist’s families or decorate client’s home for them to enjoy THIER environment.
So apologies to my seller but her efforts were not in vain. Stripping the furniture made it easier to finish repairs and create a nice surface to paint on–at a price the customer could enjoy. In the end, it cleared the seller’s space and blessed our family financially. It also blessed the new owner with a unique, one-of-a-kind piece of furniture to delight in.
I think that is a happy ending – don’t you?
I’d love to hear your thoughts below and please share to reassure your painting friends of the great service they do – turning trash into treasure.
Comments
2 responses to “Should you paint furniture or keep wood?”
I have always had a love of antique style furniture but never had a large budget, so I went to learn how to French polish and repair things. That was about 30 years ago. 10 years ago we moved into a 100+ year old small cottage and I thought my furniture would look at home in it. However, some of rooms had only small windows and lacked light, and I felt drawn into the darkness of the furniture. Then, I came across Kayleen on FB and although I had met her before in another situation, and knew she was an artist, I was drawn to her chalk painting of furniture. It wasn’t long before I started to dabble on a small piece, and then I just couldn’t stop! Not only did it brighten my furniture, it brightened my whole love of the pieces and I haven’t finished yet! Yes, it was hard at first to paint those surfaces that I had French polished but it has given them new life, and those that have carvings, well you can really see and appreciate now! So, here is one lady who is enjoying seeing her furniture brought back to life as I live it now, and thank you to Kayleen for inspiring me along the way!
Thank you for such a beautiful comment Jeanette! I am thrilled to have inspired your creativity. It is wonderful to create beautiful things outside our budget and up-cycle useful items to better than their formal glory. Thanks again 🙂
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