apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I loooove that top photo! Super sweet. I would look ravishing everyday if my clothes were stored in that.

the top picture is gorgeous! do you know what color the walls are?

I love the purple. It is a really nice color, and adds contrast.

I love all of these. The purple armoire and the mirrored dresser...gorgeous.

While I agree that the purple armoire looks cool (in a very of-the-moment kind of way). I find the text under it a bit ridiculous. "What could have been destined for a yard sale..."??? Surely you mean "What could have been destined for an antique mall, and is now (after the owner gets tired of the purple paint) destined for a yard sale." I'm all for slapping bright colors on pieces that have little value, but it is irresponsible to do it to pieces that are truly antiques and will be really difficult to strip in the future.

I love that chair in the first picture

I shopped the Ikea Expedit bookcase, but opted not after finding out the damn thing is over 200 lbs (for the 6ft one). That's 200 lbs of pressed honeycomb cardboard, sawdust, covered in plastic laminate!! Ugh! No thank you!

honey living...it looks similar to Cotswald-BenMoore Aura paint..i have Cotswald in my kitchen, master bath and office..it's a great color-looks like wet sand...but has a very faint purplish tint when paired with certain colors. The best thing about Aura paint is it makes you look like a rockstar painter, even you're kinda crappy at it :)

Nancy_Claire, this is JUST FURNITURE. It is wood attached with glue and nails and hinges that you put clothes in.

Irresponsible? I don't agree. To me that's like saying that making margaritas out of limes is irresponsible because it spoils the integrity of the limes.

Birdblaze, I agree with nancy_clare, if it is a TRUE antique then you WILL ruin it's value by painting it if a VALUABLE item but anything else, it's fair game to paint.

I agree with Nancy_Claire. And it's not "just furniture," it's a piece of history. If it was in bad shape originally and needed a ton of work to make it usable, then fine. But something like that in good shape? Aside from being worth a small fortune, those sorts of things are really hard to find. Sell it to someone who wants it.

I do like the look, I have to say, but shudder at the idea. It's like taking a Victorian home, tearing out all the period details and gingerbread and painting it to match the tract homes across the way.

The purble armoire is very cool. It looks like a $8000 French armoire. If it is, one day someone is scraping that paint off and cursing. If you have money to burn, go ahead, you do what you want to do. You can paint your Boulle desk purple if you so wish, or you can buy a beautiful period apartment with all original details intact and turn it into a modern, white plain box. I would find a cheap piece of junk and turn it into a cool piece of furniture. I do think it was more work to carve that armoire than grow a lime.

About the armoire: There is nothing irresponsible about adapting a piece of furniture to turn it into something you'll cherish. Yes, it may diminish its value in terms of cost, but perhaps its owner values it more now that it is the color they prefer! And the idea that we should sell our possessions rather than adapting them to suit our preferences is just preposterous! Maybe someone would have liked to purchase this peice in its untouched antique state, but why should that take precedence over the fact that the owner of the peice would like to have it in their home and would also like it to be purple? Even if it is a "piece of history" who's place is it to say that every bit of history needs to be preserved? Come on people. Live your life. Enjoy your stuff... the way you want to enjoy it!

So debate about antiques aside, this makes me want to buy a huge, cheap armoire with at least some details (wouldn't be as fantastic as this one) and paint it deep, glossy purple for my bedroom.

Somehow I doubt I can talk my husband into it though.

Maybe a small console table or something like that though - maybe for the mast bathroom... Hmmm... May hit a few furniture outlets this weekend...

The purple armoire--I'd live to wake up & see that beauty each morning!

I love the green and lacquer dresser! Any ideas where to get something similar? Thanks!

Hey, don't forget that we don't know the condition of the armoire before it was purple -- maybe it was pristinely stained and varnished, maybe it was a chipped, dull tan paint, or maybe it has water damage that the purple paint conceals.

I would never be the first person to paint over a lovely solid wood piece of furniture, but I'll add the next layer of paint to an already-painted piece.

if i want to buy a 20k antique armoire, drive to an open field, strike up a match and watch the darn thing go up in flames, who's to say it's a waste of MY money?

if you own the furniture you can do whatever you want with it.

period.

paint it.

spit on it.

restore it.

ignore it.

whatever.

your dollar, your choice.

I love that button-tuck ottoman!!

Can we all agree that it is better to paint an heirloom than to have it end up in the garbage, un-used in the back of a store somewhere or in a landfill?

Re: that purple armoire

The post here is a bit off -- I have the original Living Etc. issue that the picture appears in, and the armoires is actually a brand new piece. My sense of that armoire is that it is actually a paint-grade piece (the ornamentation is easily applied). It is *not* a valuable antique, much less a vintage piece.

From looking at that photo, I actually thought that the armoire is not in fact an antique.

But really, some ATers really need to come off the "how dare you touch this sacred piece of furniture" high horse. As someone who worked in the antique industry for years, I can tell you that, from an investment standpoint, 99% of the pieces I saw were never worth anything more than sentimental value.

I've got a similarly ornate wardrobe, with mirrored doors, that's laminate. I keep meaning to paint it bright blue to match my bed, or maybe green, and then deciding that I like it like it is. And then I come accross this photo and change my mind again!

I get a bit cranky with the whole antique/keep it pristine thing. Yes, ok, don't paint your redwood table or your french revolution whatever. But how do you think the things we call antiques now got that way? Just time, people. And some of them were painted or changed or whatever. Some of those decisions were bad ones, and some of them make it more interesting and real.

I would say it is irresponsible to get rid of good furniture and purchase new, simply because your taste has changed or you hanker for purple. Making your existing pieces work in your home is environmentally and financially responsible. Making grandma's old whatever work in your home is also feels good. I don't consider deminishing the monetary value for a collector in the future LESS responsible than making a piece you like into a piece you love.

And while I wouldn't slap the first coat of paint on a legitimately valuable antique, most old furniture is simply that--old.

Late to this post but can anyone source the beautiful mirrored dresser in the photo with the purple armoire?