furniture advice

[plasticpigeon]

Hello people. I'd be grateful for some help. I recently and rather impulsively bought this small wardrobe. I jumped at it as it was the only thing I've found that is the right size. However It has been messed about with a lot. The top and base are not a match for starters. Also the vertical beading and corbels on the chamfered corners are very rough and the top is not original. The drawer at the top seems a match for the carcass and for the door but the runners and divide between the door and drawer are a later addition/repair and not very well done, especially as the front of the horizontal divide is stained pine and not mahogany veneer. The sides of the main section don't look like they have been cut though so perhaps it is its original height. The panels at the back are nailed to the carcass at the bottom, but not at the top leaving the whole thing a bit rickety, and there is no bracing at the top to nail the back panels into, just the top, so it has been butchered quite a lot (the base is dovetailed into the sides and is quite rigid). I wonder if the drawer would originally have been at the bottom, i. e. the piece is sitting upside down. And I can't really work out where the drawer would have sat unless the door and drawer had no divide between them as there would not be room for one. With a plinth and a cornice, the upper section alone would look ok. I know I want to sort it out and make a better piece, preferably by using the top part as the door and drawer are quite nice, but I don't really know how best to do it.

 

[plasticpigeon]

I would really like to use the original carcass and if I don't have to extend it by a small amount then so much the better.

 

[JoceAndChris]

No idea about remaking it I'm afraid, but I think it's a nice piece just as it is - even if a little mysterious as to how it was.

 

[philpjuk100]

Nice wardrobe! I really like items that have had a "life" and show signs of modifications/repairs.I know most folks like perfect/original which makes the stuff I like cheaper!.This goes for funiture,motorcycles and cars,maybe it`s because I have always been poor/tight!.

 

[88v8]

It looks rather as if the small drawer from a chest of drawers has been grafted beneath a cupboard. But, as far as I can see from your somewhat sepia picture, the overall effect is quite pleasing and not visually unbalanced.
To be honest I'd do the minimum to make the drawer slide properly and stop the top flapping about, then leave it be, and just keep looking for something better. If the quality of the finish still niggles you, put a smaller bulb in the light fitting.

Considering how much antique furniture there is, it can be remarkably hard to find a piece in a certain wood, to fulfil a specific function in a given space. I bought a 'c18' blanket chest on eBay that turned out to be a marriage with an Edwardian front and later top and some very amateur drawer runners and crooked drawers, but I fixed the runners and the loose baseboard and there it is sitting in the west bedroom , not unhandsome and the blankets not complaining. It only cost a couple of hundred after the seller had given me a part refund, it looks OK, heyho.

Ivor

 

[JoceAndChris]

That's right, who can afford to fill a house with pristine antiques? Certainly not us! I like the character they bring and prefer them to tell a tale.

I argued with Dear Husband for years on the subject of a wardrobe, he wanted ( and got) shiny new repro - the Georgian range by Willis and Gambier - with everything sliding smoothly and clicking into place. It's his wardrobe so I had to give in. But my things are thrown in an early 19th C chest of drawers with peeling veneers and drawers that I have to wax to enable them to slide, but I far prefer it.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Yes the bottom part with a deep drawer is from another piece, although I suspect it was the base to something similar as it is not a cut down chest of drawers but was always a base to something.

I have no problem with altered pieces. I really like the bedside tables in the picture above which I'm sure are adapted, but have been done well and were very nice quality to start off with. Maybe I will just dismantle the top section of the cupboard to see if I can work out where the drawer went and go from there. Ideally I'd like to lengthen the whole thing about an inch or two to get the drawer in and some framework above and below, but it may be more work than its worth. One thing I can say is that it does have lovely smell of old wood about it.

 

[angrybird]

it looks to me as if the wardrobe is upside down as the keyholes are usually beneath the drawer pull and that the bottom drawer has been added later, but it has a certain charm about it and I bet it could tell a tale or two about its life, I kind of like quirky!

 

[CliffordPope]

Nice and quirky. You bought it on instinct - stick with that.

 

[Keithj]

A delightful piece! It shows all the glory of a busy history and adaptations made to meet new needs. Just like an old house, really.

I had a piece vaguely like that, and an old traditional carpenter advised me of a couple of things I could do (invisible from the outside) to brace it so that it didn't shake wobble and roll. A couple of pieces of oak that happened to be lying around, some glue, and 24 hours in clamps and it's rock solid.

 

[Keith Bowman]

it looks to me as if the wardrobe is upside down as the keyholes are usually beneath the drawer pull and that the bottom drawer has been added later, but it has a certain charm about it and I bet it could tell a tale or two about its life, I kind of like quirky!

I'm not convinced (either way!) about that. The keyholes have to be where the lock is and most drawers have locks which work on the top edge but there are exceptions to every rule...I agree with everyone else - it looks attractive as it is. Brace it to stop the wobbles and just use it!