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Growing up, we were surrounded by history: paintings of deceased relatives in the stairwells, furniture that told stories of past generations, china that came by ship a century ago, lamps left in wills, books written in previous centuries. The thing is, most of these items weren't in any condition to blow minds on the next episode of 'Antiques Roadshow.' They were loved, and they were used, and they weren't necessarily worth a lot. But they had stories, and they were treasured.
My mom had an antique white dressing table in her bedroom. It had drawers full of magical things, like gold mechanical eyebrow pencils, a round cardboard container of Coty Airspun with a powder puff, and sample vials of department store perfumes. I sat in the matching white seat and sniffed her bottle of Chanel No. 5 as she braided my hair for swim meets, crafted updos for school dances, and played with her Almay and Revlon cosmetics when she was downstairs, unaware.
I joked how I would get Mommy's dressing table when she died. Even my sister agreed that it should be mine. That joke became serious after my dad passed away and my mom updated her will, leaving specific things to my sister and me, my items including the dressing table and matching seat.
At some point in my mom's life, she decided to refinish the white dressing table, find out the wood below, and let it shine. What she found out after starting the process was that the three-way mirror was from a piece of furniture different from the base, and the two were also made of different woods. The pieces were held together with the most random hardware: door hinges, window locks, and not a single matching screw. She gave up, and for the rest of her days, the dressing table was a hodgepodge of dingy white paint and half-stripped oak.
The side mirrors wouldn't stay open and had to be propped with heavy items. The seat was split down the middle, struggling to remain intact with two ancient door hinges screwed underneath. The back of the mirrors was warped and peeling away. But my mom continued to sit at it every morning to "put on her face," and I continued to find it such a special and beautiful piece of furniture.
My mom passed away last September. She was found on her bedroom floor, her glasses carefully folded and placed above her head, under the dressing table seat. Her passing was unexpected, but she got her wish of having it be private, not lingering, and not in a hospital.
Even with a parent as organized to update their will and careful to properly distribute property to loved ones, managing an estate is an arduous task. I am the executor and personal representative, but my sister has done as much, and at times more work than I, plus we retained an estate attorney. And we are still not finished.
But we cleared out our mom's house and sold it. We carefully distributed the personal property we wanted to keep or give to others and then sold or donated the rest (well, we do have a small storage unit, but we hope to have that cleared out eventually). One of the first things I thought about fitting into my home was my mom's dressing table.
I knew if I moved it into my home in its current condition, it would likely remain that way until the end of my life. So I researched what the heck to do with it to repair it, honor it, but also make it mine and give it a new life. I asked friends about furniture restorers, researched how to paint such a piece myself, and began using Instagram for inspiration.
I already followed Sue from Tanglewood Arts in nearby Mount Rainier, Maryland, and was constantly inspired by her furniture makeovers. I reached out to her to ask more about her process for painting furniture, and she provided that info but shared the work of Ruth Gamarra, who runs Unique by Ruth in Rockville, Maryland. Specializing in furniture and cabinet refinishing as well as upholstery, Ruth is known for her colorful lacquer finishes. One look at Unique by Ruth's Instagram made me realize I wanted to get it lacquered.
Now, it was a decision of what color. I wanted something that would make a statement but also fit into various decor aesthetics. I love color, and my mom did too. She was a "winter" and gravitated towards blues and purples. There are some colors that just do it for me: emerald green, vermillion, fuchsia, and a purple-blue that reminds me of twilight and black light; the color I began to paint my bedroom in 12th grade before my ADD moved me on to other projects and life moved me on to college.
I felt a purple-blue color would be versatile while also making a statement, and it would be a color my mom would also adore. I shared my thoughts with , who is as into decor as I am fashion. She immediately had paint colors in mind, and made me a PowerPoint of different Benjamin Moore paints (one of the brands Unique by Ruth prefers for lacquer). It was brilliant as she would place two colors next to one another so I could see how one was darker, one was more green, one was cooler, etc. It helped me realize the color I was looking for was Benjamin Moore's Starry Night Blue.
My mom also had two tall, narrow chests of drawers that were in various parts of our homes growing up. In her last home, they were her nightstands. They have drawers that are the perfect size to organize scarves, underpinnings, and accessories. When she passed, my sister took one, and I took the other. I decided to have it, too, lacquered in the same color.
Unique by Ruth has a list of recommended local moving companies, and I chose Easy Movers DC. They came to my mom's house and carefully removed the three-way mirror from the dressing table base, wrapped it up, and carted it, the base, the seat, and the chest of drawers to Unique by Ruth. When the pieces were complete, they brought them back to my house, carried them upstairs to the bedroom, and helped reassemble the dressing table. I highly recommend Easy Movers DC!
The pieces arrived last week, and they are amazing. Ruth and her team not only lacquered the pieces but also did repairs. She secured one of the loose mirrors in its frame, got the hinges to hold the three-way mirror open again, fixed part of the peeling mirror back, and polished up all the hardware.
The seat, which was split and held together with old hinges, was repaired, and with my request, she reattached the hinges that were used to keep it together (all polished up, too). Even the sides and interiors of the drawers were lacquered. The attention to detail was exceptional.
My mom had one drawer for Bobby pins, claw clips, and other hair accessories. I made that same drawer for my hair accessories. She had one for lesser-used makeup and beauty tools; I made mine the same. The center drawer is face, the left top drawer is lips, and the top right is eyes and brows.
My mom always had a makeup mirror front and center. A dial switched the light color from day to office to evening, and the mirror would swivel to access the magnifying side. I've owned this makeup mirror for many years and placed it in the same place. Around it, I have little treasures and tools to "put on my face."
A brass chalice from her house now houses my makeup brushes. Her antique perfume bottle is now mine, sitting with my bottles of perfume and face mists. Under the dressing table is her train case, where I store packing slips and receipts in case of future returns. It feels like a beautiful mix of her style and mine, ready for its next life.
The chest of drawers is to its side. I used to store my scarves in a gallon-size plastic bag. Now they taked up the bottom three drawers. The top drawers hold larger accessories like fashion gloves, a large faux flower hair clip I wore to Diner en Blanc, a mask from a masquerade ball, a bow tie from a Rocky Horror costume, and other items that have been floating around without a home in danger of being damaged.
The problem with such a gorgeous piece of furniture is I want to elevate the room around it. It has been 15 years since we've painted the room (other than touch-ups when a tree came through the ceiling). It's looking a bit worse for wear and the color we liked in 2008 feels wrong for our 2024 selves and for this elegant dressing table.
How Much Did it Cost to Lacquer The Furniture?
And I know what you're thinking... cost. This was not a cheap endeavor, but considering the personal value of this piece, I found it to be an investment. All four pieces together ended up being under $3k and the moving was under $800.
I think of how many mediocre items I have bought over the years to recreate the experience of sitting at my mom's dressing table. I just gave my old vanity seat to a neighbor through our Buy Nothing group; I bought that on Wayfair a couple of years ago for around $150 and for the price of two of them I had a wood seat my mom and grandmother both used be restored and personalized.
Cleaning out our mom's house was emotional; it's impossible to keep everything and hard decisions were made. I often think of what we let go, if it was a mistake. Typing this in the chair in my bedroom that sits next to the dressing table... I feel good. I often preach quality over quantity here at Wardrobe Oxygen, and restoring my mom's dressing table and making it my own... that is true quality. Memories, history, honor, and style all in one gorgeous Starry Night Blue package.
