I have to admit something.

My interest in vintage and antiques was first sparked by the functionality of something as simple as a cabinet.

I did, of course always enjoy perusing flea markets, antique shops and anywhere that had vintage items.  However, my passion came from something that I needed.

It was not long after moving into our apartment, that I learned the real value of storage space.  Having grown up in a home, the luxury of storage space never really had as much regard as when we lived the apartment life.  It quickly dawned on me that organized and aesthetic storage was important.

It happened on a Sunday.  We were perusing a local antique shop and I came across a wonderfully unique flat file.  The only problem was it was a peach pink color.

I got to talking with the owner, who informed us that it was recovered from the home of an artist who was 80+ years at the time and that she had possessed this for most of her life.  It got me to think that it was very old.

The great owners of the shop gave me a fair deal after a few negotiations and soon the flat file was loaded onto the truck.  Now came the hard work.

I enlisted the help of my brother in his garage to strip the paint.  It looked as if the prior owner(s) had spray painted the whole cabinet, not once but twice.

After getting the first layer off, we were unhappily surprised to find another layer of blue paint.  However the paint remover we had bought at Home Depot was doing the trick.  Albeit sticky and messy but still getting the job done.

The remaining bits of paint that did not come off with the thinner had to then be sanded off.  Finally we took off each of the knobs and sanded/steel brushed them to a matte shine.  Some damaged portions had to be filled in with wood putty.  Finally it was time to sand and then sand some more….oh yea and then sand some more.

The easiest part of the whole restoration was choosing and applying stain.  We put on 3 layers with 24 hours of dry time in between.  It was hard, messy and tedious work but hey, they say Rome wasn’t built in a day.

After attaching the hardware back on it was ready to go to a new home.

2 days on our Etsy Shop and it was sold to an interesting and hospitable gentleman in Pennsylvania.  We delivered directly to his home which was the perfect setting for this great piece.  A grand Pennsylvania Estate set on 40 acres with upland game.