Putting A New Twist On Your Old Furniture

Sometimes when we move into a new house, our furniture doesn't seem to fit in the new rooms. The size and shape of the rooms doesn't accommodate our furniture in the same way as our former house.

If you are experiencing this problem, take heart. Many pieces of furniture can play several roles. Tables are probably the most adaptable of all pieces of furniture.

A few suggestions for use of a drop-leaf table are as a dining table, lamp table, sofa table, focal point in an entry, bedside table, or game table.

No room for the sofa table? How about using it as a writing table, a dining room buffet or entry table?

A china cabinet doesn't need to stay in the dining room when it crowds the room. It may create just the drama and height you need in your living room or family room.

Woods do not need to match, just complement each other. If you do decide to place your china cabinet in the family room, consider showing your collection of pottery or brass or glass in it. Or you can even create a bookcase out of a china cabinet.

Or maybe you now have room for the china cabinet which you don't yet own. A bookcase can act as a china cabinet until you find the perfect piece.

Does your grandmother's antique lingerie chest crowd your bedroom? These chests become fine storage places for silver, candles and linens in the dining room.

How about that extra bureau or buffet you find yourself saddled with? Put your television on it and throw out the TV stand. The drawers are perfect for videotapes and CDs. Or maybe, it's the perfect lamp table to place between two chairs.

Bureaus can work in kitchens, hallways, bathrooms and laundry rooms. In fact, any room with enough space will accommodate a bureau.

I recently visited some cousins in Southern California where they showed me what they had done to an old bureau. Years ago, my cousin had sawed off the top half and used it in his tool shed.

Not long ago he took a good look at this piece with its locks on each drawer and discovered Birdseye maple under many coats of paint. He stripped it and replaced the lid on the bottom half of the bureau.

This transformed bureau now serves as an eye-catching coffee table in their family room. The two drawers remaining in this sawed off bureau catch all their grandchildren's toys.

In my own living room I use an old toy chest (stripped and stained) to hold my firewood.

I have a client who couldn't bear to throw out an old upright piano even though the insides could not be repaired. She asked a carpenter to make it into a very handsome desk.

Old piano stools make wonderful plant stands. And, finally don't forget to try living room chairs in a bedroom or vice versa. You'll find your furniture fits perfectly in your new home, only in different places.