Article in The Record Newspaper.

We were featured in an article in The Home section of The Record Newspaper on July 24, 2010
Here is an excerpt from the online version:


Furniture with a Past


With a little touch-up, even older furniture can add charm to your baby’s nursery.
Jeff and Cookie Ventura bring new life to vintage and antique pieces as owners of Hand Painted Furniture, Lyndhurst (handpaintedbycookie.com). While they sell a variety of furniture in the store, customers also can bring in their own pieces to be decorated.
"We get a lot of rocking chairs and toy boxes that were used when customers were young, and now they want to have them fixed up for a new child," said Cookie. "One customer brought in an old china cabinet. The shelves were taken out and a rod was put in to make it a baby closet. Once I’m done decorating it, the customer is going to fill it with baby clothes and present it at the shower."
Cookie purchases furniture at auctions and estate sales, and if a customer is looking for a particular item she will try to find it. She sells only old American-made, solid-wood furniture and works with non-toxic materials.
"We don’t like a lot of chemicals around," Cookie said. "When we take a piece apart, we reuse all the pieces that we can. We don’t refinish — we paint our pieces and add artwork to give each piece that original feel and quality of a one-of-a-kind item."
She explained, "[Our customers] can save money by bringing in their own antique furniture, having it decorated and then keeping it for years to come."

— Jennifer Pinto


PHOTO COURTESY OF HAND PAINTED FURNITURE
Hand Painted Furniture custom-painted this heirloom rocking chair for a grandmother to give to her new grandchild at the baby shower.












This was the baby's armoire that was featured in the article.

This was the rocking chair that was featured in the article.