The First One

One of the questions I get asked all the time is how in the world did I get started refinishing furniture.  Today I’d like to tell ya’ll that story. For those of you who like the personal stuff I share here on the blog, today ya’ll are in luck 🙂

Well, my Mama was a DIY’er.  I learned a lot from her over the years and I didn’t even know I was absorbing any of it.  My Mama had amazing taste and style and she knew how to create a lovely home on a small budget.  So 33 years ago, on my 22nd birthday when Big Daddy asked me to marry him, after I regained consciousness  it occurred to me that we were going to need a place to live ……….. and some furniture.  There used to be this amazing secondhand / salvage place in the county I grew up in called Ferguson’s.  You could barely walk in it without killing yourself tripping over stuff and I loved it!  We actually furnished our first apartment out of that place, pink sectional sofa and all 🙂

One of the very first pieces, if not the first piece of furniture I actually bought myself  and refinished was an antique occasional table that I drug home from Ferguson’s.  A couple weeks ago while I was out visiting my Dad I walked upstairs to my childhood bedroom to retrieved  that table.

I remember using Homer Formby products to strip, refinish and seal it.  Formby’s Tung oil was the first sealer I ever used.  My understanding after a quick Google search is that The Formby’s line is still alive and well and owned by Minwax. If you’ve followed this blog for anytime at all you have figured out that I’m a Minwas Girl.   At least I know it’s in good hands.

In our first home, a townhouse in downtown Asheville this table served as a buffet.  It sat against a wall in  our dining room.  The height was great for a buffet but too high for a side / end table.  When we moved in to our first house house  two years later it was also in our dining room.  During our third move to the home we now own the table went home with my Mama and there it had  been ever since .

The house I grew up in was a white Cape Cod that I believe was built in the 40’s. When my mama got a teenager she had the large unfinished attic renovated, new sheetrock, paint, carpet,  added another window and put her teenager up there.   Half of the space was a living room with a small, kidney shaped  antique love seat and a antique trunk for a coffee table.  The other half was  a sleeping area with two antique twin beds, dresser and two closets.  This table sat between those two beds as a nightstand.   I had my own entrance and exit, via the laundry room at the bottom of the stairs that led up to my room.  I did not, however have a bathroom up there and I have just about broken my neck going down those steps in the middle of the night more times that I can count.  It was the greatest bedroom a teenager ever had!

Now,  I am not sure what to do with the little table that started it all.  By ALL, I mean a lot of things: My diy mania, my life with Big Daddy, my little company I have now.  I supposed it will come to me , in it’s own sweet time.  I just have to be patient……. and let it.

Paige