Early 20th Century Hutch

Time for the reveal of my second great find from a couple of weeks ago. This early 20th century Imperial Loyalist Hutch had me at hello.  Pulling up to the store front window, I knew she was coming home with me.  Isn’t she a peach ?!

It looked great for it's age, aside from some water rings, scuffs and scratches which were all sanded down.  I wanted to stain the two surfaces so all that high varnish needed to be sanded right off, while the rest of the cabinet just got a good scuff up.

Once your cabinet is ready for paint, make sure to cover the entire raw, sanded area with newspaper and tape to protect it.

With the exception of the two surfaces, the entire piece got a couple of coats of Heirloom White and distressing in all the right spots.  I mixed up some glaze with brown paint and applied it all over the painted areas.

After the glazing

Both paint and glaze are dry and now it’s time to stain.

Brush on the stain. Be very careful along the painted edges, you don’t want your stain to bleed into the painted areas. Paint it on, wipe it off.

 

I really wanted this surface to be useable and durable. I applied a coat of polyurethane on top of the dried stain.

I love the wooden knobs and treated them the same with paint and glaze.  The hinges were cleaned up a bit but were left in their original condition and color keeping the authenticity and rustic appeal.

It’s definitely not going to be easy to give this one up.

Jade Dresser

If you read my previous post where I showed a snippet of paint, as you probably guessed that color was used on this old dresser.

Lets refresh, shall we?

Here it is in it’s original state. Very dated, missing a few handles and lets be truthful, slightly unattractive.

And wouldn’t you know it, I didn’t notice this chipped drawer until I brought it home.  Dont’cha hate it when this happens?

I bought two colors for this project.  What you see below is Valspar paint, in Favorite Jade, and Gravity.  What you see on the dresser is ONLY Favorite Jade.  I decided I didn’t like the Gravity Grey as the two-tone between the Jade and wood was enough.

I didn’t prime this piece as I wanted the wood to show through the paint. Very little paint was put on the brush and long strokes were used all in one direction.  A dry brush was used just after to spread the paint even thinner. When it was all dried, a sanding block helped age the corners. It was then sealed with a spray Polyurethane.

So back to the chipped drawer.  I thought I would try to fix it and if all else fails, I would take out two drawers from the top and put shelves and baskets… but I really wanted to fix that drawer.   And I did.

Here’s how I did it.  Wood filler and a putty knife.

Glob on some wood filler.. not a whole lot as you’ll want to do this in two steps so that it dries. Let dry at least overnight. Then sand it down to get your corner shape and put some more on.  Let it dry again.  Sand to corner shape with a sanding block.

This was after the first application.

And after

As a few of the smaller handles were missing, I bought new knobs and plates and sprayed them black with the the other original larger handles. For the new ones to fit, new holes were drilled.

 

She’s finally done, and I must say, I think she’s become a personal favorite of mine. And you’d never know where that chipped drawer is.

 

Thanks for Reading

A Couple of ‘Before’s without After’s’

I rarely post before pictures without the after pictures, but I have to show you a couple of great weekend finds.

Mr. Charming and I went out for our weekly ‘scouting outing’ Friday night.  While scouring the Thrift stores for furniture, we spotted this little lovely. As we pulled up and saw this cabinet in their front window, I heard myself say out loud “I WANT THAT”.  It really was my day, when I told the shopkeeper I’d take it, she informed me that it was 25% off.

A little further back in the store sat the only other piece of furniture they had, this long dresser. Needless to say, that came home with me too. 

 

Right now, I’m working on one of these pieces.   Here is a little snippet of the finish.  Stay tuned to see which piece got this treatment!