What a beautiful fit for any home this piece will be. It started its furniture life as a part of a wardrobe and now it will move on recycled to stand on its own. When I get old furniture that as it is might not fit into the homes today I have to rethink, look outside the box and allow myself to break it apart. That is what happened to this piece. Wardrobes aren’t really needed much any more. Homes today have ample closet and storage space. Breaking it apart only made sense because now this mirror stands alone.
I started with giving it one coat of pure white and letting it dry. I then followed it with a coat of white shadow. This color is white with a gray under tone. By loading them on top of each other it gives it more of an aged looked with the pure white bouncing through the gray white.
I wanted this mirror to have a real aged look so I went hard with the sand back to the edges. Making sure to sand extra around the knob that was used to open it this made it looked well used. Once I got it all painted out and sanded Greg had an opinion. I know, what in the world could he say to make this piece anymore beautiful. I was pretty happy with it just painted and sanded back. I mean seriously this mirror was beautiful as it was what else could you do to make it any more. Greg’s idea was a good one especially because I had in my stash just what he suggested. My point with every piece is to make it decoratively functional for the home. Greg’s big idea to add hooks to the top side’s. I agreed it was the touch that made it finished.
There was one more little surprise this piece gave up. As we took the mirrored door off the wardrobe we noticed something sticking out of the back of the mirror. I gently pulled it out and it was a small piece of a news paper from May 2, 1893. Can you believe that! I was so excited to know what time period this piece came from. Gosh I wish it could talk and tell the story of all it has been through and all the families it has served. I will be attaching these pieces to the back of the mirror somehow so the new owner can enjoy knowing a little of its history.
Life is forever changing as we are forever changing. We have to modify ourselves to adapted to what is happening around us. I believe that furniture can be restored, reused and recycled to adapt to our lives today. Moving forward doesn’t have to mean new everything. Moving forward means learning from our past and taking it with us into the future with restored life.
