Is That an Optical Illusion in my Woodgrain...

I discovered this beautiful piece whilst out perusing my favorite re-store.  I spotted her strong beauty straight away - I think she was flexing her biceps at me, and as a bonus, she came with a large 'leaner' mirror. 

 
An older gentleman also navigating the store's aisles stopped and gave me a wink.  He said, 'that is a very good piece of furniture. Solid wood.  You could refinish it by sanding back and it will be beautiful again."

 
You read my mind little old man!
 

 
If you have read my blog before, than you know that sometimes the wood purist in my (inherited from my traditional parents) chirps up and commands 'Put thy paintbrush down, young lady!'  Sometimes I listen, sometimes I don't.   If its an ugly 70s dresser, than paint is almost a must to make the piece tolerable again.  But on MCM pieces, I will usually restain, or do a two-tone.
 

 
This piece had stunning grain.  Like swirling Van Gough clouds dancing across the top.  Paint that?  I. Just. Cant. 
 

 
But more amazing.  This piece contains an OPTICAL ILLUSION on the wooden inlay of the middle bank of drawers!!  Can you see it?  Take a look through the pictures, its pretty obvious, and SUPER COOL if you ask this old bird!  Stare at it long enough and it will turn into a breaching whale with a rainbow overhead!  Serious! You just need to keep staring.
 

 
So after I hauled this mammoth home (all 75" of her), I plugged in the orbital and sanded off the old finish which was easily done on all parts accept the top.  The top had a few extra coats of protection and it was making the orbital (and my elbow) wheeze...so I stripped it instead and finished it off with the orbital.

 
 
I was very careful not to sand through the grain, this can be tricky at the edges and corners (as I have learned the hard way in the past).  After all was sanded, I wiped down all the dust and I started staining.
 

I than protected with three coats of poly (5 on the top).

 
I opted to keep the original hardware because I love the way they slope up at the top. It reminds me of the peaks on BRASLIA dressers.
 
Here is the before.  She is on her side. She had a lot of scratches, but overall very good condition. No significant chips or dings.

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!

Vintage MCM night stands

I love mid-century furniture.  So clean and chic looking!  I found this lovely pair of nightstands as part of a set (as mentioned in my previous post).  One nightstand was in great shape, the other, not so much.

At first I was just going to refinish in stain and keep them natural, but I love a good two-toned look, so I mixed things up by painting the body in bone-white, and restaining the drawer facings in dark walnut.  The legs were surprisingly in great shape, so I left them alone apart from spot dabbing small blemishes with gel stain.

I think the contrast looks great!  They look like funky little tv screens!

I also have the matching tallboy, and a beautiful matching full length mirror.  They are both in great shape, so for now, they are escaping the paint brush.  But you never know what the future holds!

And below is the original.  The top had the worst of the wear, definitely could not be left as is.

Refinished MCM Danish Credenza

I picked this gorgeous girl up from my favorite re-store.  It was in great condition, apart from the top which was very scratched up.

It was way too lovely to paint.  Initially I thought I might only re-stain the top, but after I did that, the sides and front sliding panels didn't look so great.  So I sanded them back and re-stained them as well.

I ended up leaving the drawers original though, they were in very good condition and I like the little bit of contrast they give to the rest of the unit which is dark walnut.

Lots of aerial shots, the dresser was too long for me to get the whole thing in the shot otherwise. It is about 79" long.

Here is original pic below, as you can see, it was in pretty great shape to begin with!  A lucky little find for me.

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