Thursday, August 12, 2010

some 'before' shots & some advice?

While we were away for a few days, my husband was kind enough to drive across town to pick up some furniture that I had found (and loved) on Craigslist for me. Truly a labor of love!

I got a huge china cabinet (6' X 6', and it is all in once piece!), six dining room chairs with upholstered seats (one with arms), a dining room table with three leaves that opens up to almost 8 feet (!), and a buffet with leaves on the sides that pop up.

Here is the loot~ please pardon my messy garage :)



I need some advice before I get started, though... can you see on the china cabinet (picture above) that on the two outside glass windows, there is a gold pattern painted on the inside of the glass? It looks just right with the honey color of the furniture, but I am envisioning this piece to be white. What would you do? Should I try to remove the pattern with a razor? If I leave it, will painter's tape rip it off anyway? The glass does not appear to be remove-able (at least without lots of trouble, that is).

THANK YOU for your help!!
kathie

7 comments:

  1. I say try and remove the gold. I think it really dates the piece. If you want some sort of pattern you could try glass etching, it's really popular right now and I bet would look awesome with the white cabinet.

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  2. Remove it!!! I think this is going to be stunning!!

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  3. Ok, I scraped on a tiny corner of the gold with a razor-thingie and it seems like it's going to come off fairly easily (hopefully those won't be famous last words!). Thank you for the advice~ I appreciate it so much!

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  4. I would try to remove the gold too. Now, here's a little "hint" for you. If you look inside the cabinet the piece of "molding" that touches the glass is usually the one that holds it in place...and...that is usually made out of a rubbery material (although it looks like wood or something) and you can, with a butter knife, very gently pry it loose in one area and then pull it out. It should come out in one nice piece and you can re-use it to put the glass back in. I have moved my hutch several times and have had to take the glass out to remove a damaged shelf. My daughter worked in a furniture store and was the one that discovered the "trick". Hope that helps!

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  5. ps...the set is a wonderful find!

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  6. NanaDiana~ what a great tip!! That is exactly what is on this, and I thought it was not removable... now I know, so thank you! Sadly, I've already painted and scraped (and scraped and scraped) all the paint off the glass, but I'll save that little trick for the next time!

    Do you just replace it the way it was, or use some sort of glue to get it back?

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  7. Sounds like you've already got this one figured out. I can't wait to see it all finished.

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