Illustrated Furniture

I've included pictures of some illustrated pieces of furniture here today. They were done some years ago and the photographs were not very good. The resulting scans couldn't be improved on, really, but I apologize.

The great thing about decoration is that it can rescue a discarded old piece from ending up in the landfill site. I see so many old chests of drawers waiting for pickup on 'bulky items' garbage day, and it wrenches at me that I have no car to take them home. These are the ideal pieces for restoration. Even the saddest-looking furniture, with a bit of minor gluing here and there, looks amazing with a really good paint job. They become instant heirlooms. And that was my blurb on my advertising when I used to sell them through a local gallery, where the owner would feature them in his window. I haven't seen anything like these for years.


This was an ancient and ugly workmen's chest, taken away for free from a man who kept it in his nasty old basement for wood storage. Now it sits proudly in our living room.


This was dumped by a neighbor, and was a rather unpleasant-looking thing until I painted it. Can you just make out the drawer knobs?


A thirties style chest of drawers I paid $10 for at Goodwill. I painted it red first, then black, to give it real depth, rubbing it back a bit to let some red show through. Then I added the illustrations. This sold for a heck of a lot more than $10!


Before and after shots of an old jam cupboard belonging to a lady who wanted it to tone in with her color scheme.

I included her and her cat in the window.


I painted two jam cupboards as chicken hutches. The "wood stain" is actually a paint effect, not stain at all. One of these was sold as soon as I painted it, and then I just had to have one for myself. Can you just make out the chicken wire?

Of course, as a vegetarian, I would never have a real chicken in a hutch..