Tuesday, January 5, 2010

My Best Thrifting Finds

Told you I will show you my best thrifting find ever! Finally took some decent pictures. Here they are.
These two babies for only $40! Yeah, $40! That was not a typo. And then I found the marks in a couple of drawers, "KINDEL Grand Rapids". Went to their website, found out these are apparently quite high end furniture. They are made of solid walnut and walnut veneer. They do have some veneer missing, mainly the front edge of the top, and the big dresser is missing a brass handle (at least I think they are brass). Now how to repair these? Originally I wanted to painted them, but when I found out the quality, I want to restore them. I am wondering whether I should email the company and ask some questions. It looks like they are quite proud of their products, I might be able to buy some veneer and a drawer pull from them. That will be the best scenario. So for now, they are proudly standing in my master bedroom as it is. I have to learn how to wax them first, and cannot put anything on top of them. The other day, I dropped some handsanitizer on it, OH! Really bad! The finish turned milky white immediately. On the label I found on the bottom of a drawer, it says it took them 27 steps to get this finish, and it gets better when aging. So, how on earth can I match that? Well I will just have to do my best, and ignore the difference. Now I just need to go find another one for my side. They were originally a set, a dresser with two nightstands, but someone broke the set and bought one. I am guessing that one was in perfect condition. The chance of finding a same one is almost zero, so I am not dreaming about that. I will just go get something that goes great with these two, without the matchy-matchy feeling.
This is what I have on my side, a unfinished pine nightstand that I found on the side of the road 4 years ago. It was clean, with some scratches on top, and the bottom drawer was broken. I simply put on a couple of layers of polyurethane on it, and have been using it ever since. It was great then, since it was my first nightstand, and much better than those plastic boxes I used before. But now I think it's time for it to retire. But since it's solid wood, I probably will try to refinish it. I won't feel bad to paint, since it's only pine. But what color should I use? If I paint it chocolate brown, and get some stainless steel drawer pulls, it will look quite contemporary. But it won't match these other two pieces. If I painted it like this one, it might work great in my little girl's room. Hmm, have to think about it a little more.

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