Refinished MCM Cabinet

Well blow me down Im tired!  Mother's Day has taken it out of me.  And Im not even a mother..  I do have a cat, Ms Do-As-I-Please, but all she gave me for mother's day was a morning armpit sniff and a ferocious bath refusal.  No bacon, no eggs, just a sniff sniff and a whisker tickle.

 

 

 I did spend the afternoon with my mom, sisters, and their kiddies.  I took the two older ones down to the creek to try and catch fish.  And before that I was working on furniture all day (no complaints there!) but Im happy to be flopped on the couch now.



 

 

So I just finished this beauty.  And sometimes wood is just so great that you can't bring yourself to paint over it.  This piece spoke to me...it said...don't paint me. And I listened (for the most part, I did paint the hidden drawer).

 

 

It was in very good condition, but still needed a little spruce up.  I sanded the top and front panels back to the grain and re-stained.

 

 
I finished with 5 coats of satin sheen polyurethane.  The finish is fantastic.
 

 
It has one little drawer, and I did let myself paint that just to add a little bit of contrast when you slide the cupboard open.  I also lined it with vintage material.
 

 

I love the spidery legs. 

 

 
This shot shows how great the top came out.  I custom mixed up the stain using dark walnut and an orangey colour stain I have (can't remember what its called at the moment and Im too lazy to go check quite honestly!).
 

 

 

The shot below is the before, you can see how good the condition was, but up close there were some scratches and dings.  A little photobomber in the foreground there.

 

 



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. :)

Just another two-toned MCM

And Voila!  Another two-toned mcm.  This piece was awesome, I loved the wood pulls that stick out at both the top and the bottom of each drawer, it doesn't come out well in the pics, but in real life they add some great visual interest.

The piece itself was in really good shape.  There were a few dings and nicks in the top and sides of the unit, so after sanding back, I filled with two coats of wood filler, sanding well after each to smooth things out.  That took care of the problem and she looked good as new!

After cleaning off the sanding dust I primed the entire body of the dresser with 2 coats of GRIPPER.  I only started using this primer recently and I really love it.  It gives fantastic coverage and has awesome adhesion. I didn't sand back to the bare wood on this one, just a good deglossing, so fortunately I didnt need to whip out the Zinsser BIN for bleed through.

The drawer facings were in great condition and they have a wonderful colour that features warm amber/reddish tones, so I just gave them a good clean and left them original.

I considered staining the legs, but opted to paint the out instead to create a sense of airiness under the dresser.   I then painted with my Dulux Diamond in Pearl (2 coats) which I custom tinted to a creamy off-white.

She turned out great and was definitely worth the drive to pick up!

Two-toned Hollywood Regency Dresser

I picked up this dresser a while ago and it has been sitting dejected in the corner of the garage ever since.  I wasn't neglecting it out of spite, it was just that I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it.

At first I thought gray, but than I reconsidered because the wood grain was just so lovely.  I didn't want to paint out the entire thing and cover it up. 

Than I thought 'hey, how about a 2-toned!'.  But again, I didn't want to cover up that grain on the top..so at last, after much deliberation, I decided I would do a reverse 2-tone.  I decided to paint out the drawer facings in white, and re-stain the body of the unit in dark walnut (I usually do it the opposite way).

The finish came out great.  I protected with tung oil, followed by a few coats of wipe on poly.  the result is a nice low-sheen finish.

I really love this piece, I think she looks very chic and has that great retro feel as well.

I left the inside of the cupboard original wood (it was in great condition) to tie in with the body of the dresser.

Here is the before.  She was in excellent shape.  There were divots and nics though, so it did warrant a strip and re-stain.

Mid century modern set

Well Im slowly working my way through my stash of mid century pieces and the garage is starting to exhale again as the stress of containing everything alleviates.  Another problem is arising though - Im accumulating a surplus of dresser mirrors again. Doh!

It was love at first sight with this piece, and worth the one hour drive to pick her up.  She belonged to a lady who obviously loved her, because she was in very good condiiton.  The drawer facings and sides were all pretty great, only the top needed some TLC.

I set about sanding off the entire top.  Because there was not a heavy finish on it, it came off pretty well.  One problem I did encounter was I noticed the sandpaper on my orbital kept 'gumming' up very frequently.  Everytime this happened, the sanding slowed down noticeably and I would change to a fresh piece and it would come off effortlessly until it gummed up again.  So there you go, if you find that your finish is not sanding off well, than it could be because your sand paper is gumming on you.

I suspect the 'gummy' stuff was old furnture polish residue.  In the end I gave the entire top (all 78" of it) an overview sand to remove just the layer of gunge.  I then changed out the sandpaper (again) and the finish came off pretty well then.

I custom mixed up some stain to best try and match the rest of the piece.  I used gel stain.  It turned pretty good.  I then finished with a thick coat of Danish Tung Oil finish which really looks wonderful and matches the low sheen look of the rest of the piece.

These drawers are super-duper long, so the were catching a bit against the sides and each other, so I got the orbital out again and planed them a bit.

I cleaned up the rest of the dresser, and used gel stain to dab at some of the smaller blemishes.  I wanted to keep as much of the original finish as I could.

Next up were the nightstands.  Again, underneath a layer of mould, they were in awesome condition (apart from the tops again).

I used some retro material I picked up for $1 a metre at my favorite restore and lined the drawers.

I sanded back the tops only, and refinished them using the same steps as the long dresser.  The sand paper didn't gum up this time though, so I assume it didn't get the lavish furniture polish treatment that the main dresser did.

I really love this set with the long skinny drawers and the low look.  The credenza is only 27" tall. Very streamlined.

This is for sale on my ETSY shop

And yet another two-toned MCM!

Here is the latest in my mcm marathon.  As I mentioned previously, I am working my way through my stash of pieces, next up is a long credenza and matching nightables that are going to get a re-stain.  Too beautiful to paint!

For this little gem, I decided to go for a slightly different look.  The top was in such fantastic condition that I decided to restain, rather than paint the whole outter casing white.

  

This is a little extra work, but fortunately the finish wasn’t super thick and glossy, so it sanded pretty easily.

Only the front facing trim was painted in off-white. Oh and the legs too as I wanted to create a sense of airiness.  The rest of the dresser and drawer facings were re-stained in walnut.

I love this little honeycomb-esq detailing on the top drawers, adds just that little bit of detail and texture to the piece.

 I was a little nervous about how just painting the front trim would turn out (and not the entire casing), but I have to say Im pleasantly surprised.  It adds just that little bit of interest and contrast, yet still retains the charm of the wood.

Another TWO-TONED MCM Dresser!

Here is my latest installment.  I was lucky to find a few great condition MCM pieces recently!  My garage is currently struggling to contain them all (lucky me!).

I love a great two-tone look, so I decided to do it again on this lovely six-drawer.

I gave the entire body a really good sand, and then put on two coats of primer, before painting on 3-4 coats of off-white.

I use a satin sheen, as I am not a fan of glossy paint.  I used some clear wax to protect and add an extra layer of durability.

For the drawer facings, I sanded them down and topped them with some walnut stain for a great contrasting and contemporary look.

I really love the handles on this piece.  I had a chance to pick up the matching tallboy at a steal, but I hesitated because the condition was a bit drabby-drab.  I might sneak back and see if it is still available though...  

Stay tuned for some more MCM transformations, and maybe some colour too!  Its time for a dose of turquoise!