Hi All and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I was lucky that my father came to visit.  It's been 7 years since he has travelled  to see me. I live in Alberta and he is in Quebec. It's a 5 hour flight and he is 86 on his next birthday.

I bugged and bugged him till he agreed to come. I didn't want him to spend Christmas alone as my mom died at the beginning of November. They were married 58 years. On to blog stuff now!

I've started the new year with the bang and acquired a new sideboard, well new is maybe not the correct word. How about new to me.  I'm not sure what type of wood it is but I've been told it looks like it may be walnut.  I'll have to research to make sure so that once it is refinished and I sell it I won't look like an idiot when i don't know what kind of wood it is. LOL

It needs a lot of work but has great possibilities.

It  has some nice details, for example it has a cross like cut out, and also has the same on the top. I love anything with nice tooled legs like this. The legs give it a graceful look. It looks to be from 1915-1920's but I'm not sure yet.  I have still to do research on it's origin.

It's really well made with dovetail drawers and is solid wood with a laminate on it. I'll have to get new hardware for it (which is too bad because it has the original) but is missing two of the pulls.

 Right now I'm removing the wood laminate from the drawers and then will sand it down.  I will leave the laminate on the rest of the piece as it is only damaged on the drawers.  I will have to sand it all down, including the laminate as it's pretty marked up...everywhere but especially on the top.

I love the little embellishment along the bottom. I'm thinking I might paint the drawers with chalk paint and stain the rest but I will wait to decide until I have it all sanded down.

Just before the holidays I also found a really cute little dresser that was, as told by the seller from the 1920's as well but after researching the joints used in the fabrication of the drawers (they are not dovetails), I found that they were called a 'Knapp Joint' and generally furniture built with these joints were made between 1870-1900. So it's actually older than I first thought!

I don't know about you but the older a piece is and the more beat up it is the more I love it! I just can't help but think of what it has seen. It's at least 100 years old and it's stood the test of time. There is not much you can buy these days that will last 20 years.

The Knapp Joint was used before the machine dove tails started being used.  They apparently held up really well. I found really interesting information about the joint at a website called "Antique Trader". It was a really interesting read.

I'm not big on the hardware (definitely not the original) and it needs to be refinished as there are a lot of marks on the top and it is missing one of the locks. It is a really solid piece and I don't know if I will sell it after.  It may be one that I save. I'm kind of having a love affair with it.

Well I must go now and look forward to our next visit.

Holly