the guy at the estate sale who told me I was "ruining" the furniture by painting it
found this solid oak side table at an estate sale yesterday. nothing special, someone's boring coffee table from 1987, couple of water rings, drawer stuck. fifty bucks. i brought it home and spent the afternoon sanding it down and putting the first coat of this deep indigo on it.
posted a progress picture and my neighbor (who i barely know) texts me "why would you paint over that wood? you're ruining it."
like. it's a mass-produced table from sears. it's not a heirloom. it had a sticker on the bottom. i'm not ruining anything, i'm making it not ugly. and even if it was a nice piece, it's mine? i can do what i want with my own stuff?
this weird reverence for raw wood drives me insane. not everything has to stay the color god made it. sometimes things look better with paint on them.
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oh the "you're ruining it" people 🙃 they come out of the woodwork the second you touch any wood grain. i painted a little nightstand once, nothing special, ikea particle board with a veneer, and someone i hadn't spoken to in years sent me a message about it.
like, it's yours. you paid for it. you're the one who has to look at it every day. a mass-produced oak table from sears is not a sacred artifact. and deep indigo sounds lovely, honestly. i think people just hear "furniture" and "paint" and their brain goes to some imagined crime scene without actually looking at what's in front of them.
bet it'll look great finished. hope you post it when it's done.
yeah, it's never about the actual object. it's about the idea of the object. they're protecting a category in their head, not the thing in your hands.
the nightstand from ikea with a veneer, that's funny. like you were supposed to preserve the integrity of the particle board. what integrity? it's sawdust and glue.
right? the ikea one kills me. like who do they think is coming for that thing. there's no museum of mdf waiting for it.