Zen and the Art of Furniture Restoration

Twice this summer I have done some THING. . . to completely befuddle my sweet husband. In June it was the bunny. Now? The antique hoosier cabinet from the hole-in-the-wall antiques shop in Crosby, MN.  He didn't like the piece from the get go. The drawers don't run smoothly and it smells musty and the sliding pull out enamel is splintered and chipped. The shelves aren't plumb and heaven knows how many layers of lead paint lay under that god-aweful contact paper on the inside?

But those windows. . . those etched glass windows. . . . and the lay-out was perfect. I had to hide my ecstasy. I didn't even have my checkbook and had to borrow from my mother-in-law to secure the purchase. They don't take Visa at the hole-in-the-wall.

I listened patiently to the litany of all the things that were wrong with it.

Then he helped me load the top part into the car.

In all fairness, he married me. There was full disclosure. He had been to my garage apartment in Austin, TX and knew that I had patched together all my furniture with varnish and that my paintings were all hanging by by little finishing nails and yarn.  He knew about the small fuzzy animal weakness and he knew about the grand piano thing.

So we worked together on the hoosier all weekend and he won't admit it, but I saw the look of love in his eye as he painstakingly rubbed steel wool over the doors with the beautiful etched glass and applied the fresh varnish with a steady hand, so as not to drip.

Me?  I did a much better job sanding and sanding and scraping and scraping the inside, than I ever would have done on my own in Austin.  Partially because I didn't want paint flakes falling into my chocolate chip cookies, but mostly because I wanted to show him how beautiful it was going to be.  Twenty sheets of sandpaper, one coat of the world's best primer and two coats of Martha Stewart's "Heavy Cream" and it's looking very very good.

We still have to go back and get the bottom part.  I will listen some more about how ill-made it is and how it's held together with duct tape, and then we will load it in the car.

I am feeling very loved. . .