#vitrine

Interior with Modigliani - Serge de Vries

Dutch, b. 1968 -

Les couleurs de la ville

Vitrine

Rennweg

1030

Wien

Österreich/Autriche

los angeles, calif. april 2025

I didn't really know what the furniture was, except some looked like closets. I like closets, I like when they have shelving space.

It was on my third day I realized I had never even seen the entry room, I don't know how big it is or what the walls are like, due to the pile of furniture. So I started to pull things apart.

This is when I was met with the horrible recognition. I own 4 large, vintage, heavy, multiple elements connected, display case cabinets. Or how we call it, vitrine.

I had never liked them. I didn't like that they had glass in it. Or how many locked parts that I couldn't get my grabby little child filgers in. As an adult, I'm opposed to how huge they are. It's going to dominate any room you put it in by its sheer size. What I feel the most opposed is how heavy and difficult to move they are. It takes 100% of my power to move it half an inch, followed by dry heaving.

But, it's real wood furniture. It's heavy because it's quality wood. No part of it is plastic or badly made. Some have detailed decorated parts. They're all still in one piece, some looking unscathed because of how well made they are. It is quality furniture.

Since I barely moved some of it, and I cannot move them outside, I'm doomed to keep them from lack of other options. If anyone in croatia would like to travel to get one, you can have it. But you would need a truck, and 8 people who could pick it up and move it outside, one of which will die on the mission, flattened by the moster cabinet.

Okay now you've listened to my complaining, I'm going to share with you how to restore such old furniture so it no longer smells bad. You know how old houses get that 'old house smell' and no matter how you wash them it just doesn't get removed? I can remove it.

The old house smell is mostly lingering in all the wooden features. Walls can be cleaned, aired out and repainted, windows can be cleaned, but the wooden furniture retains it; it comes from mold that the wood absorbed. I learned this trick in my last rental because the old smell was so bad I couldn't breathe.

First you need to wash the wooden furniture throughly; for furniture as old as this I needed to do it 3 times. Then you mix 50%water and 50% vinegar in a small container, grab a clean cloth, dip in the solution so it's damp, and wipe thorougly. You have to reach every corner, behind every shelf, top and bottom. Then you leave it to air out for several days until all the vinegar evaporates.

The mold will get neutralized by vinegar and your furniture will smell neutral or pleasant!

If you wanna go a step further and remove any scratches on your furniture, and make it look shiny, mix oil+vinegar 50/50 in a small bowl, take a small cloth and rub it into scratches or damaged parts. It will darken them to the point of making it look undamaged.

I've decided to take out all the glass from the awful vitrinas and try to make a greenhouse out of it. What else would you expect from a plant lover with access to some glass.

Sa nature profonde / Its deep nature par Mario Castonguay