Friday, April 12, 2013

Vintage American manufacturing, To paint or not to paint, chicken tractor, rooster time

I have time off and a whole list of projects to do.   Almost all the projects need to done outside.  The Puget Sound  weather refuses to cooperate!   Back in the fall I found the most adorable  small kitchen table and 4 chairs at a thrift store.  The table is a really cute 1940's thing.  It was designed to be a dinette in one of the  small tract houses that were  being built after WWII.  The solid wood chairs  are a matching set but I am pretty certain they were added in the 50's.  The whole set has been painted a gazillion times.  When I get done they will have been painted a gazillion and one.  I cant make up my mind though, on the color.   Right now I am going back and forth between white or hunter green.  I've toyed with the idea of yellow or  red.  Jimmy said I shouldn't paint them at all.  He said the prevailing  thought on antique/vintage furniture  is that it should be left  in its ...aging personality.  He says painting or refinishing is a no-no.  Apparently this comes from the antique road show folks.  We all know that TV is right all the time.  Well Pfiffle on that . I want to paint it and I'm going to paint it. It's not a stickley or  a Louise XVIII.  Its a table made in the USA  during the golden years of American manufacturing.  I may not be able to buy a small kitchen table and chairs  made in this country in the last 20 years but,  I can still have the quality of furniture that I want  if I just keep my eyes open  at thrift stores and garage sales.  And.... keep my paint can handy! 
But none of the above matters if it wont stop raining so I can get the paint on the pieces I have picked up.
Eagles, hawks and chickens.  The girls are so sad penned up.  They are spending a lot of time with their little chicken faces pressed up against the fence looking out at the rest of the property longingly.  So, one of my projects in the next couple of months will be to build a chicken tractor. When they get bored with a patch of ground I can just move them to a new place.  Its the best I can do for them and still keep them from being chicken nuggets!
I'm still looking for a rooster.  They should be showing up on craigslist pretty soon.  All those baby chicks at the feed store last month should be getting big enough to crow any day now.
 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Readers