Rescuing A Sideboard

Sometimes you get lucky.

I got lucky almost two years ago, when I found an old marble-topped buffet for sale online. The pictures showed an abused piece of furniture, about 23 minutes away from the scrap heap.

I dragged Howard to a rundown apartment complex about an hour from here, where the buffet was in a storage garage. It was in rough -- very rough -- shape. But the marble top was intact and beautiful, so I offered $100, and it was ours.

We struggled to get it into the car, with the help of a mercifully well-muscled acquaintance of the seller, and headed home. That's when we noticed . . . our newly acquired problem child smelled.

And not in a good way.

Oops.

I had planned to refinish this baby myself, but better judgment overcame idiocy (that would be Howard's better judgment, my idiocy) and we turned it over to the antiques refinisher down the street from That Old House.

It was like turning our homely, dirty, smelly child over to Elizabeth Arden.

The sideboard was thoroughly pampered at the spa -- rebuilt, cleaned, de-smelled, the missing carvings replicated, the brasses polished (but not too much!), the beautiful mahogany carefully stained and finished, and the insides were made as beautiful as the outside. The only thing not touched was the marble.

I have to admit, the pro did a much better job than anything I could have done.
This sideboard is one of my very favorite pieces of furniture.
It's big and useful and beautiful; what more could one ask of anything?

When it was returned and I had enough courage to look inside, I saw its label; it was made by Maslow-Freen in New York, probably more than 60 years ago; Maslow-Freen was a high end manufacturer, catering to decorators; its existing pieces are collectable.

I'm joining the Favorite Things Saturday blog party, at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie. It's my first time! Go visit for more favorites; just click on the logo or highlighted words.

Now I'm going to do a little hunting of my own this weekend, involving some small things and a bit of Vintage Va-Voom. -- Cass