After months of searching for the perfect piece to go in one corner of my foyer, I finally found her on Craigslist. This is a really big deal because I rarely find anything worth buying on my local CL. It’s slim pickins around here. The ad claims she’s an antique, but I’m not sure… the carvings look more ‘art deco’ to me. I suppose she could pass for ‘art nouveau’ – in which case she’d then be an antique, but I don’t know much about furniture, so I’m just guessing here. Anyone know what era this charming little piece is from?
She’s got an interesting paint job, right? Yep. She’s going to need a lot of work. But I do love that patina on those drawer pulls! I’m guessing they’re original…
After discovering that sanding the finish down wouldn’t work very well, I turned to this paint stripper: Citristrip. I love that it’s the greener alternative to the other caustic, toxic paint strippers on the market. It not only worked like a dream, it smelled pretty nice too. I used chemical-resistant gloves, safety glasses and a couple of different scrapers. I’d recommend Citristrip if you want to go the safer, greener route when stripping paint, though it does take a lot longer than the hardcore stuff. But for me, I’d gladly trade-off time for safety.
I painted on a liberal amount with a paintbrush and after about 15 minutes, this started happening:
I waited about 30 minutes before scraping the bubbling paint off. I was surprised to see how easily it came off! Like butter! I also discovered she had at least 3 different paint colors on underneath: yellow, blue, and orange. It was interesting to uncover the layers of history hidden under all those layers of paint.
The veneer on each side had to be replaced. It looked like someone tried to do a (pretty sloppy) patch-up job. Instead of adding insult to injury, I just replaced the entire side panels with a panel of Purebond 1/4″ Hardwood Plywood. I’m not sure if I committed a big antique furniture refinishing no-no by replacing the veneer, but I didn’t see any other way to repair it.
Again, I chose the greener alternative by using Purebond plywood. Their wood is harvested from sustainable forests and they don’t use formaldehyde in their adhesives. I bought it from Home Depot and had the friendly lumber guy cut my plywood down to size.
Here she is, all stripped down to the best of my ability. It was painstaking and impossible to get all of the paint out of those intricate carvings.
I really wanted to refinish her and bring her back to her original glory, but the wood was too damaged to achieve a beautifully stained finish. Plus, there was still paint stuck in the carvings that I tried desperately to remove, but failed. Painting her was my only option. Womp womp.
I gave her a couple coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint in French Linen.
She was looking a little too humble, so I decided to glam her up a little with some gold spray paint on those pretty legs. I mean, if you’ve got ’em, flaunt ’em, amiright?
Voila! Those little gold legs are like a pair of glittery stilettos. And they match her pretty drawer pulls so well too! Love that!
Pin it for later!
I rescued a piece so similar to that from the side of the road! I am really hoping to be able to re-stain it but after seeing yours, probably will need paint 🙁 It looks beautiful, though. Love the legs!
love those gold legs! beautiful piece.
Such a beautiful piece. I love all the gorgeous detail. You did an amazing job and those legs are to DIE for.
So smart with those legs, Jen. It all looks great!
She’s just lovely, Jen!
I love it! And I love how the carved detail in the dresser compliments the mirror. Just lovely!
Great job… I was gonna say look at the drawers if they have large dovetails its old if they are smaller then not as old and if none it prob a newer piece… And I’m prob the only crazy one who actually loves the piece at the stripped down stage.. Lol.. Throw some wax on it and call it good hahaa but I love primitive junky stuff 🙂 you did a great job…
Ooh, great tip! Thanks! The dovetails on the drawers are large. The seller also mentioned that they’re hand-driven nails – Phillips-head screws weren’t invented yet…
If the nails are sqaure headed then it could date back to early 1800’s
No, they’re round. :/
I’m a sucker for furniture on legs. And love that scroll pattern. What a find!
How fun are the legs? I never guessed that I would start liking gold again. The 2 grooves down the front on each side of the frame could possibly indicate that it’s from the 30s.
Thanks for the tip! That would be my guess… the 20s or 30s.
Wow! Those gold legs make all the difference…. Very nice makeover and she looks great in your foyer!
I’m visiting from MMS and am now following you!
Great project and beautiful blog!! It was wonderful to meet you today as well. ~Brandy, Vintage Style & Designs
Thanks Brandy! It was so nice to meet you too! I can’t wait to tackle more ASCP projects!
I bought a dresser today that’s almost identical to yours. Mine has damage exactly like yours! It’s just the panel on one side. That’s actually how I came across your site. I googled how to fix it, and this page came up in the results. Mine was missing a front leg, so I cut the rest off, and I’m going to put it on industrial wheels. I’m going to refinish the top and paint the bottom! BTW, I’m a Nashville native!
I absolutely love this! I love to restore furniture and you really did score a beautiful piece! I love the simplicity of the white paint but with the gold details! Great job on fixing the broken area! Thanks for sharing!
Your piece is a depression era manufactured piece I beliève. I have this kind of damage repaired with filler, sanded and then painted .
This is a beautiful project! When you replaced the side panel with plywood, how did you affix the plywood? Did you remove the panel, and if so, how did you do it? I have a side panel that looks buckled in places and will need to be replaced, I’m sure. Thanks!