Two tone MCM with a Minny-me

The latest MCM.  I love this piece. Especially with the sliding cross-hatched panel!  I have taken pictures both with and without it, and I prefer the extra interest the piece has with it.  Probably because I have done this look so many times with the dark drawers and white body, so having this little panel is something different, and I like it!

I'm also a big fan of the legs.  They still embody the MCM style, but they have a geometric uniqueness that can be hard to come by.

As far as the transformation goes, I painted the legs and body in off-white.  the drawers were cleaned and spruced up, but they have the original finish because they were in very good condition.  The finish is a dark walnut, it looks a little 'warm' in the pictures.

And here is the minny-me!  If was unfortunate that the set only came as a pair.  I would have loved to have had a matching nightstand.  Minny-me is lonely.  I love the little panel cross-hatched bit on the little nightstand.  It isn't removable or slide-able like it is on the big piece, but it is really classy. 

Below are a few more pictures with the sliding panel on the piece.  There are actually 2 sliding panels, but I think I prefer it with just one of them on.  

Its great when you find a piece that is versatile!  I think this piece could be great in the living room, but still also be awesome in the bedroom with the nightstand working in tandem.

Two-tone tallboy with chevron pulls

This was such a great vintage find, and although it needed a lot of work, it was worth it in the end.

When I went to see it, it was in worse condition than the picture suggested (all of you on E-Harmony know what I mean here).  But I could see the potential, so I carted her old bones home anyway.

I love me some two-tone, so that is what I decided to go for.  I stripped all of the bits that I left original wood.  Fortunately there was no thick topcoat, so it all came off pretty easily with the orbital.  I restained and sealed with satin sheen oil-based poly.

I painted the chevron wooden pulls, and the sides a contrasting soft white.  I have done this look lots of times, and I still adore it.  But funnily enough, my neighbor came round for a chat and once again put his foot in it by asking me what colour I intended to paint it! (yep, this is after I had just finished it) (and yep, this is the second time he has done this to me!  Previously he looked at one of my turquoise pieces and asked what colour I intended to paint it......??????  Huh????).  I told him he was two-for-two, and if he did it a third time I was going to hire some local kids to go egg his house.  ;)

A nice shot of my hand. I could be a part-time hand model, I know.

You can see some of the gorgeous wood grain on that top drawer.  So nice!

Changing Your Mind

Mind-Changing Dilemmas with Shifting Trends

I fib you not when I tell you that I have been accused of being 'fickle' on more than one occasion. And truth be told, when I squeeze myself under the microscope, I suppose I can't really deny it (nothing's as cathartic as admitting to your own warts, right). 

So given this disposition I seemingly have to mind-change from time to time, I suppose it is only natural that eventually there would come a time when I would regret a furniture transformation.

And Im sad to say that it has arrived.  The subject is our very own coffee table set, of which one of the end-tables can be seen in the picture above.  You see, Mr. Chuckles inherited some furniture from his grandparents years ago, and when I first started to foray into the world of furniture rehabbing, I naturally painted and refinished everything in the house, and these vintage gems were helpless in the wake of my brush.  When I stripped and re-stained the coffee table and one of the side tables, I hadn't yet come to appreciate the beauty and trendiness of the Mid Century craze. Doh.

At the time, we only had the coffee table and one end table on display, so I didn't bother refinishing the second end table (pictured above).  At Christmas, we had such a full house of people, that Mr. Chuckles decided to bring up the remaining (unfinished) table to accommodate all of the drinks and merriment. It was at this point that Ol' Blue Eyes started crooning in my head 'Regrets, Ive had a few...'.   You see ladies and gents, the unfinished one looked AWESOME. Especially since we have wallpapered our back wall in a trendy 70s-meets-contemporary pattern.

I suppose its only natural that your style changes over time, and where I used to love everything that looked chic and contemporary, now I am moving to more of a fusion blend of contemporary and vintage combined.  I really love all things MCM at the moment (in fact Im going to check out an MCM dining table set tomorrow that Im hoping to put in our small dining area)and suddenly, magically I love the colour walnut again when two years ago I thought it looked like vomit.

I j'adore the way the walnut makes a great organic break-up to all of the colours.  The refinished side table, and also matching coffee table now look too dark to me; I finished them in a really dark stain called 'kona' that I saw at a friends house and loved.  So that's that. Little ickle fickle me.  

So naturally I am now toying with the idea of stripping them (again) and reverting to the original walnut. The curves of the legs are so great and they remind me of the 'Brasilia' range of dressers and credenzas.   

Above is another closer-up shot of the Kona stain.  It is so dark that you can't see any of the wood grain.  Mr. Chuckles thinks Im a moron, and I can't lie, I kind of agree with him.  I actually came across an old picture of the coffee table in its original state the other day and my heart sank a few fathoms. 

Darn it all to hockey-sticks that I didn't have the vision to see how cool mid century walnut or teak furniture was going to be again.  And dang those bloody magazines for setting a trend that I used to have but then cast aside...  Now that I think of it, I just cleaned out the closet and have a bag of 'old' clothes that I don't wear anymore abound for Vinnies.  Hmmm. Maybe I should rethink that decision too. Maybe, just maybe, purple-suede platform shoes are going to make a comeback just to spite me.

If you have ever had your own 'refinishing regrets', please let me know, because after all, misery loves company. :)

It's Time for Another TWO-TONED MCM!

Ok, Ok.  So this is nothing new and innovative.  I know I have done this look oodles of times before, but I really do love a nice mcm dresser with a cool two-toned outfit.

I sanded, primed and painted the entire body of this beauty.  Because I virtually stripped most of it back to the wood, I had tons of bleedthrough!

I did a coat of Gripper, then a coat of clear shellac to block the bleeding.  I then did another coat of gripper, but was still having bleed through, so I then did a coat of Zinsser BIN.  I then FINALLY was able to do two coats of an off white on the sides and front, and three on the top.  

The drawer  facings got a light sand, and were then re-coated with gel stain in dark walnut.

And voila, another two-toned mcm gem!

Have a great week!

Pair of Two-Toned MCM Beauties!

I picked up this beautiful pair of dressers from a very kind gentleman who was moving out of town to be closer to his girlfriend.  He decided to sell up most of his stuff prior to leaving.  I love MCM pieces (doesn’t everyone?) and jumped at the chance to pick up these two beauties. 

First up is the six-drawer which features two drawers with horizontal trim and four drawers with vertical trim for a nice contrast.  I also love the little white piece which separates the bottom drawer halves. 

 They were in very good ‘vintage condition’ already, but the tops and sides had some markings.  Because of this I decided to do a two-tone look which I have done previously (here).  I used an off-white as I find a pure white a bit to stark next to the warmth of the wood.

I removed the drawers and sanded the body of the dresser, I also removed the feet in order to sand and paint them too. I primed first and then did about four coats of white paint (any wonder why I hate painting in white?).  But it was worth it, because I love how good the off-white looks with the walnut drawers.

The drawers were in very good shape with just a few small markings here and there, however, they had a real 70s glossy finish on them.  I decided to lightly sand back the drawer facings to remove that shine, and then do a light coat of gel stain in dark walnut. 

The gel stain didn’t really change the colour much, but the finish is a lot flatter and more contemporary looking now. 

I love the ribbed detailing on the drawer facings, much more unique than just a straight type of panel.

Next up is a frenchy dresser in (what I hope) will be a lovely shade of green!  Have a great weekend.

Charcoal and White Dresser

I knew as soon as I saw this little gem what I wanted to do with it.  I have been wanting to do a charcoal gray with white highlighting for a little while now, and this dresser was the perfect candidate for that vision with its great trim work on the drawer facings.

I love the low streamline look of it, and I knew it would be a great modern-contemporary piece with crisp lines and no distressing.

I also really like the original hardware, squarish and blocky, it reminds me of campaign dressers.

There was two pieces of trim missing which the original owner had lost, so Mr. Chuckles helped me source some new trim and cut it to size.  I also decided to go with four circle pulls across the top, original it only had two in the top middle drawer. I thought it would look more consistent if they went all the way across the top.

I have used this colour before (here) and love how the dark gray looks when it is topped with wipe on poly. It offers a great low lustre hand-rubbed sheen.

Painting out the trim was the most time consuming step.  I had to tape it, because I couldn’t get a clean line freehanding.  I taped all the drawers, then I did a base coat of the gray to seal the tape line, and topped it with three coats of white.  Unfortunately I did get some bleed through in a few places, but it was easily touched up by hand.

I love the legs on this piece.  I really love furniture with legs, so it was nice to get a piece with them already attached!

Happy Sunday everyone!

The Before!