06/24/2025
Not dumpster diving per se, but this antique hand painted French cabinet from the 1890s was part of the ""junk"" I was hired to remove from a house yesterday!
I run an estate cleanout service, and most days it's pretty depressing work. You see what people's lives get reduced to when their families just want everything gone. But yesterday, I walked into this old Victorian house and my jaw dropped.
The woman who hired me said her great-aunt had passed, and the family just wanted ""all that old junk hauled away"" so they could sell the house fast. They were going to pay me to take this gorgeous piece to the dump. The DUMP. I had to explain to them what they almost threw away.
This cabinet is hand-painted with the most incredible pastoral scenes - you can see little shepherds and sheep in those bottom panels. The craftsmanship is unreal. Everything is original, down to the curved glass and brass hardware. I've been in this business for twelve years, and I've never seen anything like it.
The family ended up letting me have it for the cost of removal, which is how I got the deal of a lifetime. But now I'm torn. Part of me wants to restore it properly and maybe sell it to someone who'll appreciate its history. But everyone keeps telling me I should paint it white or gray to ""modernize"" it for today's market.
I posted about it in the antique restoration groups on the Tedooo app, and I'm getting mixed advice. Some people say the original hand-painting is too valuable to cover up. Others say a fresh coat of paint would make it more sellable and functional for modern homes.
What do you think? Should I preserve this piece of history exactly as it is, or give it new life with a contemporary finish? I honestly can't decide, and I need some outside perspectives before I do something I might regret forever.
