I was fortunate enough to find this lovely old mirror in the thrift store for six dollars. I figured with a little bit of elbow grease and some homemade furniture polish it would brighten up in no time.
Apparently, homemade furniture polish is only slightly different from homemade salad dressing: vinegar, oil, and lemon juice. There are a number of different recipes with which the Google-Oracle can provide the curious kitchen witch.
First I treated the wood with the salad dressing/furniture polish mix, removing all the dust and grime–paper towels and an old t-shirt work quite well. Then it was just time to sit down and polish up the glass was some glass cleaner and paper towels.
I really do love old furniture. Imagining the history and stories behind each piece is so much more satisfying than buying another soulless sofa from Eddie’s Furniture Basement. It’s easier to see the spirit of an old piece. There can be a wonderful exchange in caring for a well-crafted-but-slightly-battered antique, filling in scratches, polishing and shining it. You develop a responsibility and even kinship towards the object. It serves you well, and in return you see its own sacredness and keep it whole.
I’m looking forward to developing a relationship with this mirror. There are a few scratches and the silvering is a touch cloudy, but he has so much personality shining through his finish.
Now all I need to do is find a dresser!
The Druid's Well 
Almost all of my furniture comes from thrifting and secondhand shops. I should post a picture of the cabinet that my main altar sits on, which was something my mom found at a secondhand shop and did a fabulous job of fixing up by painting a sparkly purple and embelleshing with glass jewels, in anticipation of my arrival back in CT. I love going shopping at secondhand and antique and thrift shops – one of the things I miss about Oregon was the huge amount of those kinds of places, but there’s a decent number in New England.
Also thank you for the homemade furniture polish ingredients!
(waves hi to your cat)
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That was awesome of your mum to fix up that cabinet for you! And sparkly purple definitely suits you. 😀
I’m finding that Massachusetts has quite a lot of good thrift stores. Philadelphia did, too, back when I was in college. I think some of the trick is to find stores in fairly affluent areas as they tend to get more good quality, high end stuff.
Let me know how the polish works out for you!
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