I bought this tulip chair for only $5.00 at a garage sale. I was undecided what to do with it, so I didn't touch it until a friend had approached me to restore an old vanity desk that had belonged to her grandmother. I told her "I have the perfect chair for that desk, too!" She said, "Great, I'll take it!" I had finished the desk and asked her what she'd like done with the chair. She wasn't sure, so I suggested painting it black. She loved the idea because she has a Marilyn Monroe (black and white) bedroom and since we couldn't match the wood to her vanity desk anyway, why not paint it black. It worked! The black really was the perfect choice with the fabric that she'd provided which matched her bedroom's curtains. The two pieces seemed to belong together. The desk had been in her mother's attic and had acquired some surface water stains, otherwise it was in good shape.
After sanding down the desk, I reapplied golden pecan stain and finished it off with two coats of semi-gloss polyurethane. Then it was time to tackle the handles. I used a metal polishing compound and the buffing attachment on my grinding wheel and the handles looked like brand new! The brass just shone through and gave the vanity an entirely different identity.
Once old, stained and ugly, this vanity desk is now a useful, beautiful addition to someone who valued the person who had once owned it. This is yet another example of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." This is especially true with old furniture as its beauty is sometimes covered by years of neglect, dust and debris. It takes someone who with a passion for restoration to see the true character of these lovely old pieces and bring them to life again.
