I have been lucky enough to receive furniture from my mom over the years. In this post I want to show you the dresser that she bought years ago for her bedroom and the buffet that lived for years in her dining room.

Mom has always bought quality furniture, so these are nice case pieces. That said, we have different tastes when it comes to furniture. Mom favors dark woods in a Queen Anne style. I prefer modern furniture that isn't quite so dark. I've been using these two pieces because 1) I have them and 2) they would be expensive to replace – but there's always been something about them that I just couldn't love. Here's the dresser:

And the buffet:

Today, when I was dusting, I had a revelation. It's not the furniture itself that I disliked, but the drawer pulls. They have a mass-produced, too-slick, early American flavor to me. This is easy to fix! 

I went to Lowe's and found simple pulls that have a subtle hint of bamboo styling in a bronze finish for the buffet. I studied furniture history back in the day and remember that the English were very influenced by Chinese styles during the Queen Anne period so a mash-up of the two works for me.

When I took off the original hardware I could see how much the wood has faded over the years. The ghost of the old hardware is right there – and Steve and I don't care. In fact, I kind of like it. It is uniform enough that it looks intentional, rather than being a mistake.

The pulls for the dresser are on 2 1/2" centers – they are narrower than Lowe's carries in stock. I went online and found the perfect hardware at House of Antique Hardware. They are solid brass and expensive, but this is a lot cheaper than it would be to replace the whole dresser. The style is Chippendale/modern, perfect for the room. 

Instead of this…

Can't wait for them to get here! It's like having new furniture!