Old Furniture part two

This piece greets you as you enter the back door......

We found this one five years ago; a friend of ours had just bought an older house on about 3 acres just over the Florida/Georgia line. An old barn sits at the back fence line and it was filled with treasures just waiting for all of us to begin the hunt; it seemed as if the family who had lived there (since the house was first built) had never ever given away anything - it all just went back to that barn. There were sewing machines, irons, boxes of old school books including primers, destroyed photo albums, Vaseline glass, bureaus, beds, and even silverware. Our friend gave anybody who wanted it the freedom to put on steel toed boots and gloves and start going through it all to find treasures buried in there beside the junk.

This handmade piece was not found until our second, or maybe even third, trip up there....it was without a doubt built to store tools or other items and probably began its life right there in that barn. After we brought it home, it stayed out near our own old barn waiting for me to decide just what I'd do with it - before it could be refinished, it needed to have what seemed like hundreds of nails removed and then a good stripping of years of old paint. I worked on it from time to time - pulling out those nails and stripping it a side at a time. I painted it first one color and then another, but I never could seem to decide just where it should be placed and that made it impossible to decide what color it should be. I also asked David from time to time whether HE wanted to use it in his shed - like our friend, he didn't seem to need it - but I just couldn't let it go.....someone had built it for their needs and I just knew that eventually I find a place for it to do a job for me..........Finally, last year I painted it the same green that is in my kitchen and brought it inside where David added chicken wire and hinges - I initially used it for those counter top appliances that I don't have room to keep out and it did that job really well.....but its current job is to hold my jars and canning stuff and baskets filled with flashlights and work gloves and one used to gather up our eggs. It took five years, but I think it finally has found it's place in our home.

We found this piece in that old barn too. We use this one to store our bath towels in the small sitting area upstairs - although our upstairs bathroom has a linen closet by the time you add all the personal toiletries of the people living here plus tissue and paper towels and glass cleaner etc...there's room for only a few towels. We didn't refinish this one - instead we used a product we found in an antique store - you simply wipe it on and it lifts the dirt and drips of paint off over time - come back a week or so after application and give it a good rub and the original finish can be seen. The drawers give an indication of the age of this dresser and I wonder why someone would simply toss it out to the barn - the details are lovely and its ability to function has not been lost ..............