Vintage Thingie Thursday--Washstand

One summer day, I was home alone. I was driving down and street, saw a garage sale, and on a whim, decided to stop! (Imagine that!)

This was quite awhile back, while I was still training Les to see the beauty behind the aura of junk that pervades many of my treasures! Sometimes it's a stretch!

Beyond the mountains of clothes, shoes, and toys that are typical of garage sales, I spotted a washstand. It was painted green. I love green but this green was more along the John Deere color scheme than the home interior color scheme. And it was very shiny. And in the glaring summer sun--quite homely. But the size was nice, the drawers were very sturdy and the seller marked it down to an amount that I had in my wallet (more than a dollar I'm afraid!).

So I loaded it up in my vehicle, dropped by Wal-Mart for furniture stripping tools and headed home. I had alot to do that afternoon before Les came home and discovered my 'bargain.'

There were lots of coats of paint on this poor thing and as I scraped it away, evidence of it's long and difficult life were revealed. There were a couple of very large patches of wood filler where bits (or chunks) of the wood had disappeared to mice or neglect or perhaps falling out of the back of a covered wagon. (I personally like the last theory best!)

By late that afternoon, when Les returned home, I had removed enough paint to reveal some of the beauty of the piece! Don't you just love the swirly wood on the fronts of the drawers? And the little escutcheons--aren't they just the most! (I love that word by the way) He just shook his head and hoped I hadn't spent too much money on the thing!

It took a lot more work than I had anticipated to make this look presentable and there is still green (and brown and cream and..)paint in the grooves. The patched places are on the bottom near the back so they don't show. The china drawer pulls came from Hobby Lobby and I couldn't decide on one kind, and there weren't six of anything, so three different styles of knobs now add to the eclectic-ness of the piece!

This little wash stand is versatile--it's been an entryway table, had a place in the den and now resides beside my bed. It's big enough to hold quite a few books!

I'm glad I had that garage sale whim on that hot summer's day. And I'm glad my husband wasn't there to talk me out of it!