From Side of the Road to Stunner

First and foremost, we have the BEST mailman. He knows I'm a furniture refinisher and keeps an eye out for pieces on the side of the road during his rounds. Yesterday he tipped me off to an antique dresser free by a house a few streets away. I zipped right over, perhaps a little incredulous, since free stuff is usually pretty junky. Certainly not the case with this gorgeous piece. Admittedly it needed work. At some point it had been poorly refinished, with a thick marine varnish on the top and irregularly spread on the sides and drawer fronts. It took forever to sand, but finally I got down to the flawless walnut of the top. I stained it dark dark to contrast with the rich dove gray I planned to use on the case. Before I could paint it I had to re-glue several of the drawers that had let go and, amusingly, been scotch taped back together. Once I had the piece back on the structural straight and narrow I painted it a custom mixed gray called 'Mourning Dove'. I swapped the mismatched pulls out for octagonal cut glass pulls, and then highlighted some of the great detail work in a creamy white. I distressed the painted surfaces and sealed them with dark wax. Not bad for a 24 hour turn around if I don't say so myself!