Antique Vanity and Sunflowers

I've had an awesome lowboy sitting in my garage for a couple of months now and I've been deciding on what to do with it.  I finally decided, but time has gotten away from me and I haven't gotten around to doing it yet. I wanted to do it the first week school started, which was the first week of September and I knew I wanted to stage it with sunflowers when I was done.  My neighbor across the street had a beautiful patch of sunflowers and I asked her if she minded if I cut a few.  She said I could help myself (so sweet!), but I didn't want to cut them too early and have them wilt before I could use them.  I was almost as excited about the sunflowers as I was about the piece. haha  

Well, I still haven't gotten around to doing the piece and the sunflowers are quickly fading now! We've had a lot of rain and it's been windy and I was worried I would  miss out.  I went over yesterday and her hubby let me pick the two they had left.  They were beautiful but I needed more.  So, I drove around town until I saw another patch in someone's yard and went right up and asked her if I could cut her sunflowers.  I never do stuff like that, but I was desperate! :)  She said I could!  So, here's a shout out to all you lovely people in my community who were willing to help a gal stage her furniture for her blog! 

Like I said, I haven't completed the lowboy yet, but a client brought me this antique vanity, so I used the sunflowers on it. ;)

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 Before

Not only do you get to see the before you get to see all the junk in my garage!  Well, that's life folks. :)

This piece had burled maple veneers over mahogany! Can you believe that?  The veneer wasn't in great shape anymore, it's a little warped, and someone had already stripped white paint off of it.  It had also been sitting in a basement for years and the wood was discolored. It's a solid piece though and I love the details! 

 After

Black has the ability to dress any piece up, but what I love about this particular one is it still has a rustic feel after the distressing.  

 All the original hardware had been removed at some point.  We decided on keeping the pulls for the bottom drawers because they were unique and then just filled holes in the smaller drawers and added new knobs. 

 I love a beautiful piece of wood, but I also love the pieces that carry scars.  These tops have so much character and keep the piece from feeling too stuffy.  Maple is a hardwood so it doesn't stain as darkly as a piece of mahogany or cherry would. 

 I used to hate cracks and dings because I felt like they marred the finish, but I'm embracing the imperfections more and more.  This baby has lived a long life and is still kicking so I will celebrated her cracked facade and salute her many years of service to come (and looking awesome while doing it)!

 It was raining buckets while I was taking these pics, but I had a little sunshine in the garage with me. :)