surprise

as a longtime watcher of Antiques Roadshow i have come to dread the "good news/bad news" comments. e.g., "the good news is that your highboy is worth $5,000 but the bad news is that if it wasn't refinished it would be worth $50,000".

so i have been shopping for bathroom vanities for our home renovation. new particle board vanities of the style i like are expensive and they're well- particle board! custom vanities - man, i don't even want to know the price tags of those. our designer recommended shopping for a vintage piece of furniture to retrofit with a sink. i was a little ambivalent. but i was convinced when i thought i could find a piece of furniture that was well enough made to be retrofitted but not so precious that i was committing an antiques sin.

i found a red-painted wood vanity that i liked and bought it. the drawers were dovetailed and made of solid wood. here's what a drawer looked like as i bought it:

i thought i might redo it with some milk paint for a cottage look. i read that milk paint sticks best when it is applied to clean wood surfaces so i stripped it.

imagine my surprise when i found this underneath. very Deco. i am not going to paint over this interesting veneer wood. i ordered some unobtrusive dark pulls. it's going to have a neat vintage vibe in my bathroom. and i won't have to feel guilty. i am renovating something someone else has muddled.