Pretty in Pink

I had this deco dresser sitting in my garage without it’s partner mirror.

It was missing handles and lots of peeling veneer. 

Why oh why did they ever used veneer escapes me.  More often than not the wood underneath is every bit as nice… with a little sanding of course.  Veneer is a bugger to repair!

The back was warped so it had to be replaced. The original mirror sat in a recessed part on the top but the mirror that I chose to use with it had to sit on the top so I had to use a piece of wood to fill in the recess.

I tried Rustoleum’s new “chalky” paint on this.  Love the color!

New pulls and it’s good to go!

P.S.  The color is true in the close up not this photo.

Linking up with Making Broken Beautiful

Am I Nuts?

ar·moire

ärmˈwär,ˈärmˌwär/

noun

noun: armoire; plural noun: armoires

1. a wardrobe or movable cabinet, typically one that is ornate or antique.

That’s the definition of armoire.  Sounds fancy right?

Antique = check!  Movable = check!  Fancy = possible!

With a toooooooooon of work!  Peeling veneer might just be the bane of my existance!  Sometimes I might just be my own worst enemy.

Deco Love

 

I love the soft curves of Art Deco style furniture.  When I saw this piece, I had to have it!  For me!  I thought it would be perfect a sideboard in my kitchen/dining area.

 

It could have been used ‘as is’ but there were veneer issues so I decided to deal with them and then repaint it.

 

It turned out it was too big for my kitchen and so off to the shop it went.  Boohoo!  Such a beauty.

Weekend Finds

 

Since I seem to repeatedly lose or forget to take before pictures, I’m trying a new approach.  I’ll take pics of the items when I find them.  Then I’ll have a record.   Which may also serve as a way of guilting me in to dealing with things in a more timely manner.

 

A quick, last minute jaunt into thriftland on Saturday yielded these…

 

Matching deco side tables (probably part of an old vanity)

 

…..and a sweet little bench.  Love the detailing!    They’re usually pretty plain.

With the weather starting to cool, I hope to at very least deal with their ‘issues’ (like lifting veneer) soon.  Let’s see how I make out.

CPR for a Little Hutch

This was a crazy piece to deal with! 
First of all it came to me by a circuitous route.  I spotted it back around December @ the SA.  I looked it over and felt that the price didn’t warrant the amount of work that I would have to put into.  So I walked away.  Fast forward about a month.  I was on a ‘scouting’ trip to the SA again and was talking to one of the employees about whether another piece would fit in my car.  It wouldn’t.  So he told me he had a piece in his truck that he had bought at the employee sale and thought that I might be interested in it.  Out to the parking lot we go.   It was the same piece I had pondered earlier.  So I bought it at a much reduced price.

It sat in my garage for another month or so (and was obviously  the victim of another spray painting project).


When I finally decided it was time to haul it out of storage and go to work, I questioned my sanity.   Not only were there veneer issues but the decorative wood appliques on the legs and top were cracked and missing.

I pondered just scraping it all off but thought I would try making a mold of one of the pieces that was intact because it really brought some charm to the piece.

Break out the Model Magic (I think that’s what it’s called.) I made a mold of one of the good pieces then peeled the mold off and let it dry for a few days.  (All the while giving serious consideration to making firewood out of this monster.)

I then put wood filler where appliques were missing and pressed on the mold and removed it right away.   I let it dry for a couple of hours. When dry, I then used a blade to shape it a little.


After much scraping, gluing, clamping, and molding, it was painted a made it’s way to the shop.   Although not perfect, the repairs turned out pretty good.  (Sorry no close-ups.  I guess I ran away from it as soon as I had the chance!)