Upgraded our furniture last week...

edbert

So we only bought one piece of furniture, but it replaces two pieces and looks a heck of a lot better. This armoire is Jacobean style built in London in the late 1800's maybe early 1900's. I added the shelves since we didn't really need an extra place to hang clothes. Bought it at a little antique store in McKinney on the square called Morningstar Treasures. The owners of the store are some of the nicest and most genuine people I have met. They work with you on the price if they can and will make sure you are totally satisfied with the purchase.

SolidSqual

Ohmy god, that thing is huge. Is the little girl there for scale? nice piece.

edbert

Yes, she is for scale and cuteness factor. This was replacing two six drawer dressers that were actually four inches wider than this. Obviously not as tall as they were only about 30 inches or so tall, but they definitely took up more floor space. As big as it is, it isn't really all that heavy surprisingly. It is a total of three pieces with the header on the top and the drawer on the bottom with the middle being it's own piece. If it weren't so big I could have moved it myself. The best part is the price. Heck of a deal at a shade under $375 tax included.

brettw22

That's a cool looking armoire........

Just a thought on furniture, something anyone should check into with their local smaller shops is furniture made out of ShiSham wood. It's an Indian Rosewood and the furniture made out of it is built to withstand a bomb.....instead of pieces with false backs, every side is thick wood and is VERY heavy and durable. Just to give you an example of what the wood looks like stained, here is a jewely box to give you an idea:



I have a picture on my phone that I'll upload later of it in it's natural state, but it's a little too zebra-esque for my tastes..........

Sorry for the sidebar....just a random thought when I was thinking about furniture......

edbert

Not at all. I can appreciate a well made piece of furniture. You can tell the difference between something that has been handmade and something that has been mass produced to look handmade. I actually enjoy finding the slight differences in the custom touches that a woodworker inevitably have from using hand tools and carving the wood himself instead of using a machine to make those same custom pieces.

danger boy

nice piece edbert.... you can't beat look and desgin of well built furniture... so much of what it out there today is poorly built. how heavy is that sucker anyways?

brettw22

Do yourself a favor and look for shops that have shisham products.....You're not going to find ball bearing or roller drawers in their pieces.......it's all about the wood and it's durability is insane.......

My aunt had bought a buffet style piece for her foyer and the first thing that came to mind was taking the piece and chopping the legs off and making it into a tv stand for a big screen...........it's not one person moveable furniture........and the 2 that do try to move it better have some strength to them as well.......I'll try to find you a link of several pieces........

brettw22

Here's what it looks like in it's natural state.......I would just have a hard time making that work in my place.........



And one of the top as a solid surface......notice the little round dots on the top section of the picture.....those are the covers they do for the screws, which are more visible in natural mode than in the darker stained.........I never really noticed them until i saw them in the natural pieces.......

edbert

danger boy wrote: »

nice piece edbert.... you can't beat look and desgin of well built furniture... so much of what it out there today is poorly built. how heavy is that sucker anyways?

Overall it might be a couple hundred pounds. The sides and back panels are only about 1/8" thick with those joiner strips inbetween being about 3/4" thick. The front, top, bottom and drawer area are all closer to 3/4" thick. The thing is actually quite solid considering. It has it's blemishes, but none that are all that noticeable unless you are looking for them. It is definitely warped in places so I had to shim it up a bunch of weird ways just to get it level and then make sure that the door would stay closed. Now we just have to get the other two pieces out of the room(they are on the opposite side of the room) and then start shopping for bedside stands that match the same general style of this armoire.

This is what we are replacing. You can see the second one next to it.