Found Furniture Finds a Home

How we turned a house into a home with found furniture, a little bit of imagination and a dab of peanut butter.

Last week, my sister and I drove to New Jersey to help my almost-divorced brother settle into his new home. Because money is always short in these situations, we've been scouring yard sales and thrift stores for months for the necessities to get him going. Between his yard saling and ours, we found almost enough to enable him to live comfortably as a civilized being, with the goal of replacing the more battered objects as money becomes available.

Because he wished to leave his children's home intact, he took almost nothing from the marital house, which left us with the challenge of pulling together rooms furnished with bits and pieces. His daughter's new room has purple walls and white painted furniture; the son's blue metal tubing, light oak, and primary colors. His room is a combination of walnut plastic laminate shelving and a wood dresser with a dark stain. Nothing matches, yet somehow it all works together.

The living/dining room was the biggest challenge. This included a not very attractive sofa and matching chair donated by friends, a walnut buffet circa 1970's from our parents house, (which while not a bad piece of furniture in itself, was present due to fact of ownership more than visual appropriateness) another walnut plastic laminate bookcase, and a dining table that despite close scrutiny, we were unable determine the exact nature of its composition. In pride of place stands a bit of my brother's handiwork-a beautiful oiled cherry library table with decidedly Shaker influence.

The table was an oasis of taste in a sea of tacky until we set the street corner armoire in place. Its lines are simple but the mahogany veneer is intricate and eye-catching. Somehow, this piece of battered abandoned casework tied together the heights, scales, and finishes of everything in the room The piece needs work, but we were able to remove the stickers with lemon oil rubs and a little thumbnail action (peanut butter is also a handy, non-toxic glue remover, but contains oil that can penetrate unfinished wood, so test on an unobtrusive area first). The original probably brass and butterscotch Bakelite handles are missing, and the doors are drilled for pulls with a 4"center, which is an unusual size. My brother has yet to embark on his new hobby, which will be attending flea markets, antique shows, and junk shops in search of the perfect hardware. That could keep him happily busy for years!