It’s no secret that I love eBay. We bought our shower on there. Our bathroom taps. Countless wires and plug-related thingymabobs for Joe’s many gadgets. It’s generally something I find useful and good value – for the most part.
After my recent look at how we could incorporate a home bar into our house somehow, I discovered that not only are many pre-made bars costly, but they’re also cheap looking (the designs we found anyway) or were significantly too big for the space we have available. Looking into other avenues after reading many many interior blogs for alternative ideas, I decided it may be better for us to buy a dresser, and stain or decorate it in a way that makes it our own. Naturally, I turned to my trusty mate eBay.
I had done some research and found that for a Welsh, French or Dutch dresser (quite frankly, I don’t know which one is which, and neither do most eBay sellers by the look of things) you can pay up to £1,000 for one that is in great condition and has been painted with a posh paint – Farrow & Ball seems to be the brand of choice – but you can also pay as little as a tenner, if you’re willing to do the work yourself.
Ever on a budget, we of course went for the latter.
Finding the items on eBay wasn’t a problem. I liked so many. The problem was getting my hands on one!
Firstly, these items are large and are more often than not collection only. I found that the vast majority were based on the south coast, which was disappointing, as getting it couriered would have cost a fortune and defeated the point of a budget project.
Upon finding local dressers, I found that I was continuously outbid in the final 5 seconds of the auction. Beyond rubbish!
So, I sat down one evening and watched a particular dresser countdown into it’s final few minutes, determined to get my hands on it. And I won!
Joe went to collect it the very next morning, and here we are: the proud new owners of a solid, large, vintage oak dresser with minimal wear and beautiful dovetail joints to the drawers. For a bargain-tastic price just over £50. Not bad eh?
I don’t know anything about old furniture so couldn’t tell you much more, but I know that it’s bloody heavy, and a solid piece of furniture, something that is so difficult to come by anymore – unless you pay out of your arse for it, pardon the expression.
(I’m fighting the urge to say “they don’t make them like they used to” and realising I’m 27, not 87.)
I love this piece. It’s not currently to our taste, and I have every intention of painting it in some way to modernise and fit in with our decorating – whenever we get around to that – but it’s furniture with personality: something our house has severely lacked as we’ve gone for basic items from the likes of Ikea, and whilst I do love Ikea and you just cannot fault their value for money, it sometimes doesn’t compare to something that was made in another era.
So, here it is! Any tips, links, products, similar projects – shoot them my way! I’ll be transforming it before Christmas, and as a newbie to this kind of thing, I think I’ll need all the help I can get!
