The Chest of Drawers No One Wanted

I’m back!! I may be posting sporadically, but I’m trying to get somewhat into the swing of things since we moved from Richmond, VA to Louisville, KY… lots of boxes still to unpack… I think writing these posts will help me not dwell on how much I still have left to do! One day… one box… one area at a time… it’s slow, but it’s progress.

Anyway, on to the furniture part!

I finished this piece a couple of weeks before we moved, I loved it so much I wanted to hold onto it just in case I had a spot for it in our new home. Well I’m here now and I’m pretty sure that not only do I not have a spot for it, but I will also have to make some other hard “letting go” decisions before all is said and done… yes, it could be worse… I could NEED furniture and not have it I know, but I do tend to get “attached” to certain pieces… and I really do LOVE this one!

I thought it was sad that no one else wanted to tackle this beauty as I saw its potential right away! The chest had quite a bit of veneer loss on the top, not just the little piece you see missing from the front, so I enlisted the help of my SAH (Super Awesome Hubby of course) to help me remove the rest of the veneer from the top. It was not fun… he didn’t like doing it… and he gouged the crap out of the top so I wasn’t very happy… oh well I guess you get what you pay for right?

BEFORE

Just look at all of those gouges in the picture below… ARGH! I had already started filling them by the time I took this photo. I used Minwax High Performance Wood Filler which is made specifically for problems like this. If you haven’t tried this product yet, I highly recommend you do, I also use it to rebuild missing furniture pieces because you can sculpt it, it is just a great product! Basically it’s a 2 part product you mix together then you have about 5 minutes of working time with it, also you can sand it and once it hardens it is VERY durable and sort of miraculous.

The below photo is after I sanded the filler down with my orbital sander, starting with 100 grit paper and finishing up to 150 grit. If I was planning on staining the top then I would have finished with 220 grit, but when I am painting a piece I only sand to 150 grit which is still a very smooth surface for paint but still has enough grit for the paint to adhere to.

While the top was drying I started to work on the drawer fronts. There was a big piece of molding missing on one of the drawers so I chose to remove all of the molding from the drawer fronts. Sometimes I replace the molding, but I didn’t have the time or the inclination to do so with this piece.

I used a stiff spackling knife and gently pried the pieces up. The trim was attached with little nails that I removed with needle nosed pliers once I had removed all of the trim. I will usually hoard save the trim to use on future projects.

I filled the holes with stainable wood filler and sanded the entire surface down with 150 then 220 grit sandpaper, I’m going to try to stain these beauties and I hope they come out looking good.

The center decorative piece on the top drawer is actually an inlay of different wood types, so very pretty, I’m going to attempt to keep this a focal point when I start to stain the drawer fronts.

At this point I either forgot to take pictures or I’ve lost them… but I stained the drawer fronts Dark Walnut then I added another layer of Kona stain to darken them even more. I painted the cabinet Valspar Satin Black and the knobs I sprayed with Krylon Gold.

AFTER

The dark stain still allows you to see the grain, but helps hide some of the imperfections with the wood. I also waxed the drawer fronts with Annie Sloan clear wax a few days after I applied the stain.

I’m a HUGE fan of this gold spray paint of Krylon’s, it really dresses up the piece makes it feel very masculine, like I should be wearing a smoking jacket or something…

The finish isn’t “perfect” but I think it turned out much better than I could have hoped for considering what I started with.

Here is the Before and After… I much prefer the Dark Walnut / Kona stain to the original mahogany. What about you?

So now I’m back to unpacking… why oh why do I have soooo many candles??

Thanks as always for sticking with me and stopping by!

Until next time…

Linking up to these parties!

Between Naps on the Porch, The Dedicated House, Coastal Charm, A Stroll Thru Life, Elizabeth and Co., Savvy Southern Style, Domestically Speaking, From My Front Porch To Yours, French Country Cottage, My Romantic Home, Redoux Interiors, Miss Mustard Seed