I'M A MID-CENTURY MAD MAN

True Life: I'm obsessed with all things mid-century modern. It was a magnificent time for the design world so whenever I go thrift shopping I look for pieces from this era. Finally, I came upon a gem! This dresser was a steal at $20 and since my sister is moving into an apartment (and I still have a year left in New York *sighs*) she got it after some prodding. It was pretty beaten up, scratched, and covered in a sad brown stain, but that can all be easily fixed with some elbow grease. 

With more spare time and far more technical skills than my sister, I took it upon myself to refurbish this piece of furniture. After some examination of the dresser and with the help of the interweb I began to sand the thick veneer down, mostly to see if the stain and scratches would come off. (Always going with the grain!) Once the majority of the sanding was completed with a 150 grit sandpaper, we filled in holes and big cracks with a wood filler and went back over with a 220 grit paper.




While I was advocating for maintaining the wood finish, the owner of the dresser thought a white finish would be a better fit for her room - so we compromised. The drawers were hand sanded using a fine grain sandpaper (the 220 grit again), wiped down, and then coated with an "English Chesnut" stain to give them a little contrast. We topped them off with a satin coat polyurethane and -viola-  a brand new dresser!



Instead of having pulls or handles, the drawers are all angled so that to open all you do is grab the lower lip! The previous bad stain job left patches of dark spots on the face of the drawers but otherwise I'm happy with how it turned out. The bronze leg-caps really contrast against the white which I find aesthetically pleasing. Hopefully, my sister takes care of this piece and it holds up another forty years!