To Paint Or Not To Paint…That is the Question

What is the answer?? Is that a question that you find yourself asking yourself?? How do you answer yourself?

Honestly, I think most people think we paint EVERYTHING. We really don’t. Admittedly, we DO paint a lot of furniture. That’s because I buy a lot of furniture that is in really horrible shape and painting is the easiest, best option. If a piece is gauged, burned, and/or covered in stickers, then we are painting. Before anything else, we fill, scrape, and sand. And, believe me, most of the furniture we have in the shop comes to us with one or more of those ailments. We are like the Humane Society for furniture. I like to rescue it and give it a new home.

If It’s Beautiful Wood…I Don’t Paint

However, I am firmly against painting beautiful wood. Not like a man, though. In my experience, I find that most men feel that wood should NEVER EVER be painted. Even cheap plywood for some reason. Anyway, that’s my own “rule of thumb”. Trust me, we are not over here painting any fine antiques.

This 1800’s Hoosier is in the shop just like this

This is how this Hoosier Cabinet came to us. As you can see, It’s not perfect, but if you were over 100 years old, you would have a few “age spots”, too. However, our furniture salve brought out the beauty of the original wood. Have you checked out our furniture salve?? It revives and seals not only unpainted wood but painted wood or stained wood, too. Further, it works wonders on vinyl & leather, and smells fantastic! It comes in 13 amazing scents

This super sweet sideboard will never see paint if I have anything to say about it

Don’t you love this cutie??? I love oak. NOT 1980’s oak, but OLD oak. I think it’s timeless so you don’t have to worry about it looking dated. Again, furniture salve to the rescue on this buffet, too. That’s all it needed, don’t you think?

Personally, I like a nice mix of painted and not painted furniture in my own home. I like furniture that has a nice mix of painted and unpainted parts, too. This desk is a perfect example of that.

In addition, this desk is also a perfect example of a piece of furniture that came to us in serious need of help. Linda’s husband made a whole new top for it. Linda stained the top, sanded down the drawers, and stained them to match. After painting the body, she distressed it to bring the look together.

Isn’t the detail on this amazing??

Totally different take on the same idea with this charcoal desk. This one is very clean lined and we did not distress it. We painted the body and left the drawers natural. We just rejuvenated them with our furniture salve.

Charcoal gray looks amazing with the natural wood drawers

I hope this helps if you are struggling with what to do with your vintage furniture. Please check out our online shop right here if you saw something that sparked your interest.

Thank you!!