Isn’t this every lady’s dilemma? Well, it probably was for many Victorian Ladies….so you just know it was a great dilemma for me, I serve tea so often,   in my Victorian fantasies at least.
Little did I know that the answer was waiting for me just inside the Salvation Army Boutique. Now you know when boutique is added on to the store logo that there resides within it’s confines articles that are deemed to elicit a little higher price point than the rock bottom prices found in the main store.
Well there she stood,a rather forlorn soul with no rubber tires on her wheels a few chips in her veneer and worst of all,under her removable glass tray total white out. Evidently moisture had collected under the glass and caused the shellac finish to turn white. This is a fairly common dilemma especially for older shellac finish furniture.In fear and trepidation I gingerly picked up the price tag which revealed to me it’s “boutique “price,$125.00 and no senior discount in the “boutique”.My fears were not unfounded.
As I debated the purchase the deciding factor was that in all my searches I had never seen one before. Those I had seen were newer vintage and bore prices up to hundreds of dollars.
The decision was made , I purchased the tea cart and happily brought it home. The water marks covered easily under the tray with a piece of lace and vintage greeting cards. The wheels’ rubber tires were replaced with a black electrical cord glued on with liquid nails and the few veneer chips were camouflaged with a furniture scratch repair pen.It looked great. You may question the look of electric cords to replace it’s old hard rubber tires but I just saw one in OLD TOWN ORANGE for hundreds of dollars and I honestly could not tell the difference.

Hebrews 13:2 be not forgetful to entertain strangers:

glass tray is removable for convenience in serving

really can’t tell the difference from the electric cord tires to the real ones!

My tea cart has drop leaves to increase the serving surface,note the vintage cards that I left under the tray, a great way to display them and no water marks!

Alas the water marks were still present. I had tried many remedies to no avail. All that was left was refinishing and this I didn’t care to do. Then one day a friend gave me a gift of Howard Orange Oil furniture polish. In my attempt to give my tea table a good cleaning,I noticed that the water marks were disappearing! What a great discovery! Now I can remove the lace cover up and my tea cart is pristine..at least in my eyes…And best of all I can serve tea with great pride(in my fantasies , at least!)