I got this pie safe several months ago. You can see from the picture it was very dirty and beaten up.

I found it in the garage at an estate sale in Aurora and made the mistake of buying it without taking it out into the sun to see exactly I was getting.

The doors were warped and was much more beat up than I had seen in the darkness of the garage. I paid for it and had took it to my car, a Buick with a big trunk but not big enough to really fit it in. It was sticking out and I was hesitant to drive it all the way across town to my home.

I tried to get my money back but they estate people wouldn’t allow me. But they did reduce the price to $20. So, I had no choice. 

The first thing I did was repair all the wood and then strip and stain it. The veneer on the top is peeling off so I looked at putting on a new piece of veneer or putting a piece of marble on the top. I decided the marble would have been too heavy so I ended up using a solid piece of oak that I had and cut it to size. Then I routed the edge to give it a decorative flair.

I looked at replacing the glass with some ornamental tin I saw at Home Depot but decided I liked the pebbled glass.

I finished the pie safe and sold it last summer. It turned out nicely but had trouble with the doors. I didn’t realize how warped one of the doors was so I had to do some finagling with the hinges.