The charm of painted antique furniture

They don't get any better than this late 1800s typical American wash stand that someone painted a pale pink and covered the rest of it with wallpaper years and years ago. It shows its yearsmakes it ever so appealing.


Who can resist a child's chippy painted dresser? Not me! I love to find pieces like this. Was it a salesman's sample? Maybe, because of the detail. Anyway, the original paint has chipped away a bit but that's what makes it all the more enchanting.



I love painted dressers and chests like this old one from the teens or 20s. The original paint looks like it's been polished and dusted hundreds of times over the last 80 years. The romantic handpainted detail in the center is irresistable.





There is something about painted furniture, early pieces with original paint on them or antique pieces that are beautifully painted, not wanna be's but the real thing with a fresh coat of paint that is so appealing. Artists and furniture makers have been painting furniture for three thousand years, it is nothing new. In the 1500s the Venetian artists were in full swing painting furniture. The Dutch caught on the the 17th Century. By the mid-18th Century, France dominated hand painted furniture in Europe and set the pace for the rest of the world. American pieces, like this example of mustard paint on the bench below, are very desirable by collectors.

Another example of a painted chest with a romantic floral painting in the center of the drawers.