Thursday, June 03, 2010

miracle product

I have a lot of big furniture that has been handed down to me from various relatives. While it is beautiful and usually very useful (old dressers have much deeper drawers than modern stuff), it is stressful trying to keep the children from damaging it and dark finishes show such scratches very easily. So it was with scepticism that I purchased a bottle of Old English scratch cover for dark woods last week. Since then I have been a mad woman with a rag constantly in my hand, rubbing down my china cupboard, two sideboards, and 4 dressers.

But the most miraculous transformation has been our 100 year old upright piano we bought about 5 years ago. We decided to start piano lessons for Will and found a great deal, it just cost more to transport the piano than the purchase price. (a friend found out after one sharp turn that using a pickup truck to move an upright is NOT a smart move) The piece has missing patches of veneer, scratches all over, chipped keys (I went over them with an emery board to smooth them out), but plays beautifully (the tuner said it would last forever). Yesterday morning I went over the entire case with the special polish and it really does look like a different piano. So...if you have dark furniture and lots of sharp object wielding children, I highly recommend picking up a bottle of Old English polish and expect to be amazed.

(before and after)

1 comment:

Foxfier said...

<3 that stuff. 'Old, unfinished table. The wood-work is lovely, but the thing LOOKED like it had spent the last several decades in a barn.

Half a bottle later (is wood supposed to make a sound like a five year old going for the last of a shake?) and it's in much better shape.