the love and hate of painted furniture

Start your engines people, the week has begun. Hopefully y'all enjoyed some good times this weekend. We were busy beavers with track meets, home projects, ORC check ins and several trips to the park. And in between all of that I was able to go out to a huge flea market that is new to the St. Louis area.

It was an amazing turn out in a beautiful (and muddy) location and I saw tons of great accessories and fabulous booths. But as I walked deeper and deeper into the market there was one thing that started to bum me out. Everyone had great furniture but all. of. it. was painted. Some of it was just slopped with white paint, and some of it was beautifully done in fab colors.

And to be honest, it really bummed me out. Does everything have to be painted? What about refinishing the furniture instead? It would involve the same prep time and the same amount of work (to do it right). Don't ruin a beautiful secretary by drowning it in gallon of cheap paint.

And then I turned the corner and saw this. Beautiful. Amazing. Head spinning console. I thought of a million places this could go and a dozen people who needed it in their home.

Obviously you know I love painted furniture as I've shown here, here and here. And I'm not suggesting it goes away entirely, but I think we need more pieces in their original state.

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What do you think? Would you consider refinishing your next vintage find rather than painting it? Would you be more likely to buy something that was refinished or painted?