This is a DIY project for a seriously skilled person. We love the look of antique painted cabinets (especially in a pared-down, minimal room). The pair of Chinese antique red lacquer cabinets shown above is from Pagoda Red. We're pretty sure we'd never be able to pull off the same look on our own, but we can save up for one of these antique pieces...
You could pull off the look with decoupage -- you don't have to be an expert painter.
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If anyone has some experience is integrating these sort of pieces into the home email us with your thoughts and photos which we will put up on our blog about Chinese antique furniture for interior designers .Gosh, I have seen so many of these cabinets and they are just as pretty each time. These are great cabinets - especially set of painted red Chinese cabinets"
I don't know how to attach a photo here but we have a whole story about these kind of cabinets on our Chinese antique furniture blog Basically the article is about whether or not these pieces can be considered genuine antiques or not. The whole article is here:
http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/2007/09/18/blurring-the-line-further/
In the meantime, here is a quote for those interested in a little little history:
"Answering this question becomes even more difficult when you consider the awkward journey a piece my take as it travels through the "antique-reproduction" supply chain. Consider this attractive low table, we purchase and restored for a customer in Italy. The first picture (upper left) is what it looked like when we purchased it BEFORE restoration. The last two on the bottom are the final result AFTER restoration.
The cabinet itself is a antique. It was collected from a peasant on a farm by a "materials collector" who then sold it to what we would consider to be a wholesale antiques flea market far off in Shanxi province, to the west of Beijing. From there is was bought (in bulk along with many, many other pieces) by a local furniture factory who re-laquered the front and completely retouched (actually repainted) the beautiful gold painting you see on the front of the piece. Or what DID the front look like in the first place? Maybe there never was any red lacquer and the peice was just a common wood color. So while the delicate gold "Chinese miao jin" paintings and trim look old, they are in fact completely new. Why is this?"
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