We found this American Drew piece at an estate sale in North Carolina.  The piece was generally in pretty good shape, with the exception of a few minor imperfections with the finish on the top.  When we are shopping for new projects we are looking for three types of pieces: antiques that need little work (see this blog for an example of these type of pieces), pieces that we are going to completely refinish (see the twin 1 and twin 2 blogs for examples of these type of pieces), and transition pieces that we will be transitioning from its original manufactured purpose to a newly created and designed purpose (this blog and our Chevron Bench blog are great examples of this).

This was a Craigslist find, and we have to say (and I think you will agree when you review the before pictures) that we took a leap of faith on this project. There was nothing pretty about this dresser when we got it, but we knew that a solid cherry piece could have a ton of potential behind the ugly facade known as wallpaper. We ended up having to replace all of the hardware, which was a bit expensive but was totally worth the investment when you look at the finished product.

Josh's family is big on hitting up yard sales, and seeking out those once in a life time deals.  If you have ever been yard selling, then you know that they can be hit or miss.  However, sometimes when you hit, you hit a gold mine.  That is exactly what happened with this Secretary that we purchased in North Carolina.  It had everything that you would like to see, lattice was completely intact, veneer was generally in good shape for its age, the hardware was perfect, and it did not have a terrible odor from years of being in a smoker's home like some pieces do.  All in all, this was a home run; we just needed to do some minor touch-ups on it.  

We have a friend that cleans out homes after estate sales. He ended up with a full French Provincial dining set.  This buffet was the first piece that we decided to tackle. This piece had a few scratches on the top, but all in all the piece was in pretty good shape other than some loose internal sliders for the drawers (we wood glued those back in place, and now they are completely solid again).