Sunday, March 29, 2009

The '80s Ain't Always Such a Bad Thing - Burl Bedroom Furniture by Hickory

Yesterday, I bought these two lovely pieces of bedroom furniture, produced by the Hickory Manufacturing Co., likely sometime in the 1980s. Hickory is one of those "Grand Old" American furniture companies along the lines of Baker or Thomasville that have been around forever (or since 1911, in Hickory's case) in one form or another. Today they are owned by uber-mega-conglomerate Furniture Brands International (which, incidentally, also owns Thomasville), but they still put out a very high end, quality product.

These dressers are a testament to the quality of furniture that Hickory produces, even in the "dark days" of the 1980s, when even many major "high end" furniture makers were turning out loads of processed particleboard crap. It should be noted that there is not a bit of particleboard in these pieces - they are made of 100% solid wood (veneered, of course, but solid wood under the veneer). It should also be noted that the long dresser, despite its lack of particleboard (which is much heavier than regular wood) is INCREDIBLY heavy, easily 200 lbs if not more. If the current prices of Hickory's furniture is any indication, these pieces must have cost thousands of 1980s dollars when they were new.

The finish on them is good - but boy, would they be stunning if they were refinished. I can see the wood bleached and clearcoated, and the hardware darkened, or perhaps have the hardware chromed and refinish the wood dark. Either way it would be worth it, as these are stylish, attractive, bombporoof pieces of furniture that will literally last a lifetime any way you cut it.

3 comments:

Shira Abel Shvo said...

I inherited a set like this from my big brothers when I was 10. I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate this style. It's ugly as all hell. (sorry, had to get that out)

Love your blog though!

Anonymous said...

Nice blog about Bedroom Furniture, get fabulous High End Bedroom Furniture and more from spacify.

Spacify said...

Get Bedroom furniture, Modern Bedroom Furniture, Contemporary Bedroom Furnishings,Bedroom Sets Suites, Bedroom Mirrors, Storage, Platform beds at Spacify.high end bedroom furniture