Several years ago my husband and his siblings helped his mother move from the home of their childhood to a long term care home. This involved dividing lots and lots of stuff including some furniture.
One of the things he brought home was a chunky dresser. It provides tons of great storage, but looked blah and worn. It got stuck in the back of the basement where it stayed for quite a while.
I debated what to do with it. Its body was strangely orange-ish and needed some pizzazz, but the drawers had a great grain pattern. My father-in-law had already tried stripping it, and the body still did not dazzle. Still, I hated to add paint to the drawers.
Finally, my husband decided we should paint it black and add some gilding. I bought black paint with the intent to do just that, but when I began putting the paint on it went on in a streaky way that I loved.
So, mid-project I changed it up. I placed painter’s tape down each side of the front and in the shape of an X with a box around it on the sides. Then I did a very fast coat of my streaky black paint on the top, sides and front frame of the piece. I left the drawers alone.
Once it dried I pulled off the tape revealing a one-of-a-kind piece of furniture. The whole project took about an hour and a half and netted me great storage.
I had read that minor scratches on wood can be diminished if you rub them with a walnut. Since there were several scratches along the drawer edges I decided to try this and bought my bag of nuts. As I took a photo of the bag I realized I had pecans! So, this became an experiment to see if other nuts worked as well.
What I found is that rubbing the nut along the wood releases the nut’s natural oil which the wood happily drinks in. It works well on minor scratches. One drawer had a chunk out of one corner. I went ahead and rubbed it as well. Though the change was not significant I thought it did look nicer after, not as dry and jagged. (Before and after below.)
Before and after of drawer scrapes…
This drawer had a two inch scrape along the top trim bead which is hardly visible now.
This little bit of attention elevated this piece from the back of the basement to the master bedroom. It has helped me alleviate the crush and over stuffing of the other drawers and shelves in our room.
My Wm. Morris project of the week.
Also linking at House of the Hepworths, Miss Mustard Seed’s, Feathered Nest Friday, Whipperberry, Chic on a Shoestring, The Shabby Nest, Funky Junk Interiors,Metamorphosis Monday, Topsy, Turvy Tuesdays, Delightful Order.
Miss Mustard Seed made my day by featuring my humble dresser as one of her picks of the week.
What a great idea! I have some old pieces that could use a bit of jazz! Thanks for the idea!
I would love to see what you come up with.
That dresser is gorgeous! I can see why you would hate to put paint on it. I’m dying over that gorgeous wood grain.
I like your tip about the walnuts, too. I’ve heard of that, and every time I hear that tip (and one similar to it) I imagine that our great-great ancestors would look at a lot of the gimmicky stuff we buy and scratch their heads.
Only I could go to the store for walnuts specifically for a project with a walnut dresser and come home with pecans! Something tells me my ancestors might be shaking their heads pretty frequently!
What a beautiful piece. I am glad you were able to fix it up and keep it in good shape.
Me too. It is quite a work horse.
What a great idea. looks so designer now!
cheers Fiona
I will take that compliment with a big smile on my face!
I found an old desk at Goodwill made from the same kind of wood as your chest. It is one of the most beautiful old pieces I’d seen in a long time. While it has cracks, pits and broken pieces on the veneer, I just call them beauty marks.
And that old walnut is solid as a rock, isn’t it?
I’m loving this as it totally captures the period of the piece; it’s as if it was there all along. Would you share exactly what paint and technique you used to achieve this look? Great job.
Teresa
If I used a “technique” on this project,I would name it lucky! I was using just a cheap Lowe’s black enamel paint. To cover the piece would have required a few coats of the stuff. That is what I intended to do when I began the work, but when I put the first strokes on the paint went on in a streaky way that I loved. I decided to paint the top in this streaky way and then choose how to proceed. The paint went on so quick and easily it was a no brainer.
It was the wood peaking through the paint that I liked so well about the streaky finish. That lead me to the idea of taping off areas. I used a level to insure that I was applying my blue painter’s tape evenly. I put some first on the front in a single stripe down each edge. Then I made the X in the rectangle with tape on each of the dresser sides. I swiped paint over these areas and allowed it to dry. That is probably the best description for what I did….I swiped the paint in quick motions.
The drawer fronts I just cleaned with Murphy’s oil soap. I did rub chipped and worn areas with the nuts as mentioned in the post.
This was so simple I am embarrassed to even describe what I did! The entire piece was done in under an hour and a half including being pretty well dry. It was also so incredibly cheap. You could barely even tell any paint was gone from the quart can.
I think part of the reason it went so well was that I felt no pressure to get it right. I knew if I didn’t like it, I could always paint over it. That gave me the courage to forge ahead. The whole thing was serendipity plain and simple!
How wonderful that you kept the wood and you excepted that the piece had been used and had some worn markings. It looks fabulous, very creative thinking. Love it and I can totally relate to pecans instead of walnuts…sounds like something I would do, duh, but it works!
It is a little ironic that I would mix up the nuts!