Taking a Break From Spring Cleaning

Spring is a wonderful time of year.  It's starting to warm back up (sloooowwwly but surely) and the cleaning fever is hitting me.  While partaking in the usual spring cleaning to-do's, I'm finding a ton of other little tasks that really should not be overlooked another day.

Meet my armoire.

In 2006 a house fire left my bedroom in a bit of a...crispy state.  Luckily no people or pets were harmed, but all of my possessions were lost.  For somebody that has been a thrifter and a hoarder since the day they were born, I must admit I was pretty devastated.

Thankfully this experience really put into perspective just how much emotional stock I should/should not have in my "things."  I still love all of my treasures, but they are not everything.

I rarely bought anything new therefore none of it could really be replaced, so when the insurance check arrived and it came time to re-stock I wasn't sure where to start.   One thing I knew was that I didn't want anything new.

I bought my armoire, along with the rest of my bedroom set, from a used furniture shop about 8 years ago and have been loving it ever since.  (You can take a peek at the rest of the set in this post.)  A beautiful piece that, like many antiques, has seen some sh*t.

It has moved to 4 different houses with me and taken quite a beating.  One of the doors has been broken off and re-attached, loose trim pieces wobble, and it's covered in water marks from a moving day gone wrong.

This side, pictured below, was the worst of it.  Look how blotchy it is!

In the midst of my spring cleaning, I decided it was high time I spruced this baby up.  I took some Restor-A-Finish and furniture wax to it and I'd say that the photos speak for themselves.

Here's that extra blotchy side after I was halfway through rubbing on the Restor-A-Finish:

The difference between the top and bottom half is pretty clear!  I love this stuff.  It brings such a richness back to the wood that, in this case, I didn't know was there in the first place.  And without any real work.  That's the best part!

Here are two photos of the same door right after wiping it down.

Once I had the wood restored to it's former beauty, those brass pulls were looking pretty awful.  Using a paste of a couple tablespoons of kosher salt and fresh lemon juice, I scrubbed those puppies clean too!

I let them sit in the mixture for a few minutes to loosen up the grime a bit and then scrubbed them with the course side of a kitchen sponge until they shone.

I couldn't believe what was hiding under all that grossness!

I'm so very happy that I finally took the time out to show my armoire some love, but also kind of kicking myself for not doing it years ago.

And I'll end with a flashback to ugly before I show you the stunning 'after' shot...

Seriously, what took me so long?!  I guess it's back to cleaning now, but I'd say that was a pretty productive "break."

Have you guys experienced the restorative powers of Restor-A-Finish??  I swear to you they aren't paying me...I just love the tiny miracles that this stuff works.