A young man inherited his grandparents' bedroom suite, including this 1960s tallboy. The furniture was in good condition but outdated. He wanted me to update the set in classic black as well as flip around the inset drawer piece to the basket weave side. The end result was exactly what he envisioned.
Here is how he uses the Koehler made tall boy in his room - as a TV media stand.
I forgot a before pic so snapped a couple shots after removing the hardware and starting wood filler.
a video tour of the piece
The top drawer has this inset piece that has a basket weave design on one side. It was removed after the knob was taken off.
The drawers were vacuumed well then cleaned with white lightning cleaner that now comes premixed in a spray bottle. After the cleaning round inside and out, a clean damp cloth did a final wipe.
One of the drawers dove tailed edges was loose so reglued with Titebond ultimate wood glue. All surfaces were scuff sanded with a sanding sponge. Then all sanding dust wiped with the damp cloth. This sanding step not only smoothes the wood but makes the surface have more adhesion for the paint layers.
The drawer repair was clamped and all left to dry.
Now for the dresser body. It was vacuumed and cleaned with the spray cleaner inside out then wiped with a clean damp cloth.
The dresser top was a super smooth shiny piece of faux wood arborite aka laminate. This provides a super durable top which as you can see shows no wear after all these years. The plan is to hopefully keep it seeing its use will be a high traffic area.
The top drawer runner was loose so it was secured with more Titebond glue.
This video shows how I did the repair.
Once the mud was dry, the surfaces were again smoothed with a sanding sponge and wiped clean of dust.
One the right you can see the thin layer of veneer over the chipboard on the bottom edge of the drawer. Check this location or the dresser back edge when seeing if a piece is solid wood or veneer.
I chose anchor
Dixie Belle silk mineral paint for this set as it is an all in one paint. It has a built in primer and top coat that have a silky matte finish. Again the look the young man wanted.
I applied it to the inset piece and laid it on the top to get the customers opinion. It was exactly right so all the drawer fronts were painted their first coat.
Using my
Festool orbital sander, the base was sanded to bare wood as the finish was very shippy. Your surfaces will show any defects even more once painted. To get better access to all edges I removed the base completely.
This makes it super easy to get all sides sanded.
It accumulated dust in the nooks and crannies so was scrubbed well seeing it was off.
Everything is now ready to paint.
A nice straight line was done along the inside edge too, touchups are easy to get in the tight small spaces using an Artist Brush.
After the first coat of paint areas that need filling will show up, I used more black Dixie Belle mud again applied with my handy offset spatula.
A light sanding smoothed out the mud as well as the paint to make it super smooth. A second coat was applied.
The paint is complete.
The customer approved and wants to keep the top original as it is super durable.
The rich black is a lovely update and below the legs look fabulous.
Fun fact - I used 1 full tub of anchor for both dressers each getting 2 coats
Now to address the original hardware
After they were scrubbed well and very dry, black satin spray paint was applied in many light coats starting face down to get the back sides done first.
Then they were flipped over and more light coats applied.
The hardware was put back on. The tone on tone give the old hardware a modern look.
The original top also had a coat applied and buffed in too to add some luster.
This bad boy is complete and ready to return home.
Retro modern MCM style
And here it is back in its bedroom back to work as the TV gaming stand.
Links to the Dixie Belle products are for your convenience. My affiliation with this company does not increase prices on your end, your purchases via my links do however provide a small subsidy which allows me to keep providing these free tutorials. Thank you!
There are also some #amazoninfluencer links as well.
FEATURED ON
Shared on these fun link up parties
Comments
Post a Comment