I was so eager to makeover this pair of dressers that I plain forgot to take a before photo of the highboy dresser. You’ll just have to visualize that it had the same finish as the matching dresser shown below.
Lets take a moment to talk about the dresser in its before state. It is so bland and lifeless. It’s a mix of 80s peach laminate with mid century legs and hardware. The brass plating was coming off the hardware and the “brass” on the legs was painted on, so that definitely had to go. The laminate was chipping and had some weird sun damage spots. I took a closer look at the drawers and discovered the laminate was placed over top of solid wood. Sadly this was only on the drawers, but it was a very exciting find!
The laminate was so thin, so it was fairly easy to sand off using an electric sander and a heavy grit sand paper. Once the drawers were sanded down, several coats of Danish Oil were applied until they were sealed and the finish was even.
The body of the dresser was sanded and patched because there were several dents and scratches. Once the surface was smooth, I applied a few coats of primer. The final top coat is Benjamin Moore Snowfall White in high gloss Advance.
Here’s the final result of the dresser and matching highboy:
The legs were primed, painted and then I taped off the area I wanted to spray to achieve a “dipped” look. I went with metallic copper spray paint since I wanted a neutral colour palette for this pair.
Those are from the 60s, not the 80s. The result looks great, but they were closer to mid-century before you started.
Hi Eric,
I still think they were from the 80s, no one in the 60s would dare use the faux finish pinkish hue that was all over them. I also don’t consider them to be mid-century. They are vintage, as the title of my post says. So glad to have given them a new life. Even if they were from the 60s, they were in rough shape.
Sorry! My tone clearly didn’t come through. I was trying to make the point that not all mid-century design was spot on. Like these… great lines; bad veneer. Your redo tastefully updates them. I’m familiar with that sort of 60s blond finish — an aunt has been trying to give a set away for years. After seeing your post, I may take them.
No worries I wasn’t trying to be snarky! I just really love furniture 🙂
Fabulous re-do! Agree with Eric..MCM blonde(ish) lacquer finish over veneer (on the drawers anyway) 🙂 Looks MUCH better now though! The wood-grain on these type of dressers is amazing after you get through the horrible layers of colored lacquer.