Sunday, October 30, 2011

antique dresser redo

Are you ready for a sad story? I saw this online and loved it (it has a mirror that goes with it).  The lady who was selling it said she had stripped it which is why I assumed it looked the way it did.  That was fine-less work for me, right?  So, I had Craig pick it up for me.  It was late when he got home, so we put it in the garage and I didn't look too closely at it.  The next day we took it to his shop and I realized, in the light of day, how rough it was.  I mean it was REALLY rough!  I thought surely stripping it wouldn't do that to it.  After working on it for a few days I realized they had stripped it by sand blasting it!!  I usually don't give advice because I stink at it, but here's some advice--DON"T STRIP AN ANTIQUE BY SAND BLASTING IT!!!  please  :) 

Before


After



I call this French Blue --yes, I made it up ;).  It's hard to tell if it's blue or gray and that's what I like about it!

So, even after some serious sanding the drawers were still pretty rough (you can see the grooves in the wood)--but I think they tell part of her story now.  Check out the keyholes--love that!
I was going to keep the original hardware until I realized it wasn't the original hardware and then I thought--why should I keep it if it's ugly and it's not the original? After all this poor thing has been through I thought she at least deserved some pretty pulls--so that's what she got! 


The top was just as bad as the rest of it.  Sanding just wasn't going to do the job and I knew I wanted to stain it so it had to look good.  Bless Craig's heart--he took the grinder to it.  DIY'ers:  this is not recommended!  It took some heavy sanding after that, but I think it turned out great.  I also love that you can see where they nailed the top down.  That's old school! :)


Just goes to show something beat up and worn out can still be made beautiful!

SOLD
Side note: I still have the mirror, but it was really rough and because it was so ornate could not be sanded. I painted it, but didn't like the way it turned out, so now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. :(

1 comment:

  1. I really like how the grain of the wood pops out, not that I would ever suggest sand blasting to get this effect... lol. gorgeous!

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