Restoration
I've been living for the past year and a half with a dresser that only has two functioning drawers. The gliders for the other four have lost all of the little ball bearings that are supposed to make them slide smoothly in and out, and they've seized into a permanent state of not-quite-open/not-quite-closed. If I'm lucky, I can pull a drawer out just far enough to reach in and grab the article of clothing closest to the top, but there are things in the backs of those drawers that I've completely forgotten about over these long months.
I took a quick glance through Craigslist last week and found this antique dresser for $50, and while it was in obvious need of some serious care and attention, it had sturdy dove-tailed drawers (with no gliders to break), and I could tell that it had good "bones".
I had no intention of trying to strip it down to the original wood, so it got a good sanding and priming, and the hardware went into the crockpot to remove the layers of paint that had accumulated on them over the years.
I went to my favorite green building supply yesterday and was lucky enough to find a can of "mis-tint" Safecoat cabinet paint in exactly the colour I wanted (at a reduced price!).After a few coats of "Autumn" white, the old girl was looking almost as good as new:
A good scrub with a wire brush got the paint out of all the nooks and crannies on the drawer pulls, and they're looking much nicer now. I can't decide whether to leave these handles in place, or whether I should go look for some glass ones to replace them (I just think glass might look better with the white paint).
My favorite part of this dresser is the daisy medallion along the bottom edge.
We've gotten a lot of our furniture from Freecycle and Craigslist over the years for very little or no money. Often all these treasures need is just a little elbow grease and TLC to turn them into something really unique and beautiful.Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go use the Jaws of Life to extricate my wardrobe from the grips of my "old" dresser.
12 comments:
Wow, you did a great job restoring the dresser. It turned out so pretty! Cute daisy medallion.
Wow! She cleaned up a beaut! Great work, I love the details like the daisy, wood has so much character :)
I just never tire of hearing of deals like that. $50 for a beautiful, solid looking, wooden dresser with character. Love it!
What a beauty! And for $50!
I bet that'll still be in service long after any dresser you could have bought new for twice the price would've been.
Jaws of life...lol.
Great find.
I'm a huge fan of glass knobs so that gets my vote.(:
That cleaned up so nice. The detail is so eye catching. nice score!
Wow! How did you see its beauty through that initial condition? It looks like two completely different pieces of furniture--you did an amazing job! And you are such an inspiration!!!
As for the handles--I like what is there and I like the idea of glass ones. I think the glass might give it more of a feminine appeal though. Just my 2 cents :-)
wow it looks amazing!
That looks great. What a great find. You are so talented at finding treasures and restoring them to something gorgeous.
Wow! That dresser looks fabulous. I've done those kinds of projects in the past. Lots of work.
Wow! I've had your blog up most of the day and I've been reading it steady :) I can't wait to try some of your recipes! Great posts!
The dresser so good now. You did great. If my opinion counts for anything, I vote for the glass knobs too. :)
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