It Takes Two to Tango

I bought this funkadelic pair of mid century solid mahogany dressers at the ReStore last week. There were a couple interested parties for each piece, but in the end no custom refinishing panned out, which for once I was a bit relieved about. See, I knew what these needed to look like. I had already worked out the entire plan for them by the time they were loaded in the truck. Their form is a perfect blend of sophistication and boho cheek, but their surface was FUGLY. I've seen this surface on a couple Lane cedar chests from about the same period, a weird white green wash that totally robs the
mahogany of all its splendor. They needed a sassy surface to do justice to their quality and structure.

            Which is why I painted them a custom mixed poppy red almost orange named 'Mango Tango', which is also my favorite dish at our local kick ass Japanese restaurant. I sanded that heinous chalky surface off the beautiful mahogany and stained it a deep dramatic tone. I distressed the cases and sealed them with wax and finished the set off with vintage brass knobs I ordered from Ebay. Really those milk glass knobs were almost as bad as the anemic gray varnish.

            Tomorrow I'm doing a blog post to show you three very different ways to design a room around these dressers, because they're fun and cool and unique and totally inspire me.