Our guest room

Some old items here!

Clare did the cross-stitch on the far wall in ’91…
Clare was rocked in the rocking chair as a baby…
The mirror tray on the wall above the dresser was my maternal grandmother’s…
The blue dish on top of the dresser is a piece of Fenton art glass; http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-02-24 …

The cherry dresser has been in my family since it was made sometime in the mid-19th century. My paternal grandfather was the previous “owner” and my mom and dad brought it to Carbondale in Dad’s Suburban in the late 1980’s.

The dresser needed refinishing and I did not want to unload-and-load this beast more than necessary, so I went to the Yellow Pages. There were only two furniture repair shops or refinishers listed and my first call went unanswered. The other listing was for McMeen Cabinets and Woodworking · [web site no more] · and Lee McMeen was at home and answered my call. He was willing to take a look, even on a weekend, so we piled into the Suburban and went out to his shop.

The first thing Lee did was take out a drawer and scraped the face of the drawer with a pocketknife, as I watched in horror! McMeen said, “Yep; this is cherry.”

He did a wonderful job! This became daughter Jenny’s dresser and now it resides in our guest room.

Note the upside-down arrangement of drawers: the deep drawers are at the top and the shallow drawers are at the bottom.

Frames kept today: 3.

A year ago (“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled…”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-01-06

[Rick Schies]

Well you surely have some ideal piececs of history, they are all beautiful

[Thom Mitchell]

@digitalrn Thank you, Rick! We really cherish the old family pieces! We did have to make a decision as this dresser eventually required a repair. Mr. McMeen asked us if we wanted to continue using the dresser or whether we wanted it to have "antique value." Our philosophy is to use these family heirlooms, so it was repaired with modern techniques and materials. (The drawers are all hand-dove-tailed!)

[Angie Vega ☮♥ シ]

it has such a nice feel...beautifully captured