should I buy this cupboard?

[oaktree]

I just saw this cupboard on craigslist...it's in two pieces, so it's huge...60x87x24".







It would fit in my kitchen and possibly my living room, but I already have a cupboard I'm working on for the kitchen. See here:



It will go here where I temporarily have that small one:





Here's what I have in the living room right now. The cupboard I'm looking at is actually from the same house as the yellow one...and I made the seller promise she'd let me know if she ever put the white one up for sale.



It's pretty inexpensive, and I'm very tempted.

Any opinions? Should I buy it? Is it better than what I have for those spaces already?

[TexasRed]

I think it's a great piece, I'd buy it. Especially if it's a bargain. I don't think it's better than the other gorgeous pieces you already have -- one can never have enough storage.

You look to have room in the garage (?) to store it while you are deciding where it would be most useful.

If you decide that you really don't have anywhere to use it, just re-sell it. You'd probably get your money back, maybe make a little pocket change.

I vote YES, buy it.

[oaktree]

Craigslist is so dangerous! I also really want this though I have absolutely nowhere to put it, and it's much too ornate for my farmhouse:



I think I'm going to go for it with the white cupboard. There IS such a thing as having too much storage when there is no longer room to walk in the house, but it really is a good deal and I love it. Though people who know me would say it's not in terrible enough condition for me to buy.

[lovesickest]

Oh yes, BUY that white cupboard ! Don't think twice. It's perfect as is.

I'm not loving the fancy wash stand, but that is my taste not yours.

As far as I am concerned you only have "too much storage" when you have zero clutter in view and a bunch of empty cupboards everywhere.

[lovesickest]

I am also very susceptible to Craigslist lust. My solution to all the pieces that were too expensive/too big/too far away/great but not right was to start saving the pics. Periodically I go through my files and ooo and aahhh over the ones that got away, but this seems to satisfy the cumulative part of me.

It also seems to have helped my ability to differentiate what I REALLY want/need ?

[oaktree]

I am also very susceptible to Craigslist lust. My solution to all the pieces that were too expensive/too big/too far away/great but not right was to start saving the pics. Periodically I go through my files and ooo and aahhh over the ones that got away, but this seems to satisfy the cumulative part of me.

It also seems to have helped my ability to differentiate what I REALLY want/need ?

Agree about the washstand...there's a reason I bought such a plain house. I like primitive, plain things best...but those green tiles sure are appealing. I will try for the white cupboard! Wish me luck.

[TexasRed]

Good luck Oaktree.
I hope you get the white cupboard! It sure is cute!

Lovesickest - great solution for dealing with all the pretties on CL! I'm going to try your picture idea for those items I love but won't, can't, or don't buy.

Yes, I too am guilty of being a Craig's List junkie. Oh my, I always find something I "think" would be perfect. I can't buy everything I ooh and ahh over - it would fill a house in short order.

[phil]

at least if you pour your heart into refinishing those you can take them if you move. I'd look inside though if it's painted inside I don't' know if I'd want that job and no way I'd keep it with the paint it has. Some love things with old milk paint. and will even pay extra for it so it's a personal preference. It's old for sure.

I had a fellow radio collector put it this way:
some people put cardboard boxes in their deep freeze, it saves power. So what im doing is applying the same principle to my house. the more full it is , the less air volume so it heats up faster and saves energy

also if you line your walls with at least two feet of junque then it adds to your wall insulation so it's kinda win / win

Ive had some success with keywords on Craigslist. Its surprising what you find if you search for the word "free" in other categories than free. also I tried searching for words like "my ex" or ex wife, ex husband ,, LOL I found a whole set of roofing tools with air nailers and all the different hammers and tools for 50 bucks by searching for "ex boyfriend".

she said he'd moved back east and just told her to sell them since it wasn't' worth shipping them. She was happy just to see it gone.

get creative with searching . ones like "no room in driveway" "need my garage back" "no time to finish" hey you never know.. I've found good deals on cars just by searching for mileage for example I found my volvo by searching for 80K and Volvo. I found one out with only 80 K and it was 25 yrs old but that's perfect for me. It was parked most of it's life.

[oaktree]

at least if you pour your heart into refinishing those you can take them if you move. I'd look inside though if it's painted inside I don't' know if I'd want that job and no way I'd keep it with the paint it has. Some love things with old milk paint. and will even pay extra for it so it's a personal preference. It's old for sure.

I'm not really a chippy paint fan, but this one isn't in too bad shape. I might use it as is for now. I agree refinishing the inside of cupboards is so much work, which is why I still have another cupboard in my barn that is taking such a long time.

[phil]

it looks professionally made. it would probably be possible to take apart if you did want to do the whole bit and strip it completely. lots of stuff like that was put together with hide glue and glue blocks, maybe a few dowels. probably no screws or nails. If you just give them a tap it can often break the bond and come apart, then you could deal with it piece by piece. I bet it's nice wood. nice panel construction. notice how the front has what is called full frame panel construction , when the doors are closed the surrounding wood is flush with the front of the doors. that's a sign the maker knew what he was doing. you can see how even after a hundred years it still all lines up pretty accurately if you notice that when the doors are closed they sit flat with the face frame. you cna see the gaps around the doors look pretty even. some guy in his backyard shop or a carpenter who built it while building a house probably wouldn't get those things so right.

I wouldn't take an panels apart. Often if you just pull the drawers and flip them you might see better how it's constructed, if it is dovetails, if the bottom of the drawer is solid wood if it's plywood that dates it to after they started making plywood but it looks older. seeing if they cut a groove in the drawer bottoms , that's normal but on cheap stuff they do funny things like nail it on. if it's made properly it might have a drawer bottom held by just one nail that you could then slip out to clean the drawer bottom up. up.
I think on even better stuff you might see a "dust shelf" this is a piece of wood that's kind of between the drawers to stop stuff in lower drawers from interfering with the drawers above, you don't' usually see those. If you do it might indicate something special. desks often had secret hiding spaces, doubt if that did but you never know right?

. the other thing you can do is pull the drawers an inch and then rattle them side to side. cheap mass market depression stuff often has a real loose fit. like even 1/2" It shouldn't be a tight fit or anything It just gives you some idea. If you are real lucky sometimes people write stuff under the drawers, there could even be a signature and date in pencil, sometimes the furniture makers did that.

I picked up a little unit full of tiny drawers. they are each round 2" x 2" x maybe 6 or 8 inches deep.. maybe the bottom ones were double size. not sure what it was for..
two of them were actually wood boxes for cheese or something with a commercial label. . It looked like they liked the size of those and then made the rest of the drawers the same size. I found a signature in the 40's under one drawer. I got the feeling it was made by someone who knew what they were doing but had no money for materials and it was hardly fine furniture. It was surprising how many pieces of wood were in it. i spent a couple evenings and painted the front up and made a few missing knobs. it was free and just a fun little project.

I think if it were mine I'd keep it in one piece, maybe strip the outside if it has shellac under it. inside maybe just see if you can live with it, everything doesn't need to be made brand new. nothing wrong with a little shelf paper.

the doors look like they would really fit in with a craftsman house with with old square cut panel doors (like my house) . the proportions are just right. i actually like it more after looking at it a few times. the artful top edge is fun to see.
I'd say it is quite robust looking and would really fit into a craftsman style house.

I bet the drawers are dovetailed. it might be interesting to see how the fronts are attached. I'm thinking a novice might make those drawer fronts in two pieces but if it were a craftsman you'd probably see signs that the front is one piece and the dovetails being hand cut blind dovetails at the front, and the back of the drawer might have through dovetails since you'd never normally see the back of a drawer. it might be quicker and easier to make the drawer with through dovetails and then attach a second piece to the front of the drawer so it didn't' need blind dovetails and then when you slammed the drawer shut the drawer might start breaking between the two fronts. It won't look different to the eye, but when you notice the front of the drawer has those blind dovetails you kind of know the maker did it the traditional way and didn't use through dovetails for both.

when I did my kitchen my dad showed me and hand cut a set of drawers for me, he was getting too old to work much but he really knew his stuff and I wanted to learn from him. I didn't feel so confident to cut all the dovetails and bought a dovetail jig to cut them on my router, the easy way. It is actually a different setup for every corner, though you could possibly use the same setup for all the front right , then do all the front left etc. if you start to look at Ikea quality stuff you might see they used dovetails to say they did but then used two drawer fronts which most would never notice. you also wont' see different sized dovetaails or the scribe marks from cutting them. the workers left those scribe marks as sort of a signature, they could have sanded them off but usually did not.

note that the drawers have a lip that closes against the face frame. when it shuts the front of the drawer stops the drawer from moving back further. If you have heavy stuff in the drawer it works like a hammer trying to pull the front off. If the front of the drawer is dovetailed to the sides then it pulls on that. also if you were to take the drawers right out and look at the drawer slides you might notice that the drawer slides are also part of thew construction of the cabinet itself. In more modern stuff they might use dovetails that are ore for show than function. In older stuff you;ll see the dovetails are not exactly identical in size. some makers might make the drawer with the front and then glue or screw another front on to make it larger than the front. I bet itll be all one piece of wood.

nowadays they use roller slides , the cabinets aren't so strong. they use dovetails to say they did but with old ones lke that you might notice where the maker used a scribe to mark out his dovetails before he cut them in. don't sand the scribe marks off if you see that, its history!

if you were interested in buyingit you could ask them if it's got lead paint on it and if you can test that. If it's a distance you might just ask them to flip a drawer over and take a pic of the bottom to see how it's constructed.