I am just so excited to show you the before and after of this 1920’s Antique Dresser and Night Stand Set. Last week I sd with you a little bit of it’s history (or what I could find of it) and a tutorial on how I created the marbled paint look. I’m so excited to be able to bring it back to life so it can have another 100 years of history to tell.
Isn’t she gorgeous? She was in pretty rough shape when I picked her up. Definitely something that needed a bit of work. The nightstand was missing a chunk of the decorative curl at on the front, as well as the original hardware. Also the top was completely falling off. I actually tried for about 2 days to salvage and repair the veneer on the top so that I could stain it to match – but no luck. After I glued one piece of peeling veneer down, another would pop up until I finally gave up. 🙁
In addition to that, I had to strip and retain the veneer on the top of the dresser. The sides were missing chunks of veneer and buckling everywhere, so I stripped the veneer off the sides as well.
One thing that was so exciting to me was the hardware on this set. I’m assuming it was the original hardware because it was so unique and it had smaller sizes for the two upper drawers.
I went back and forth on whether or not I would paint them, and ultimately decided that painting them to match would create a more simple airy look to this set, which is what I was going for.
I also antiqued this set with Roasted Chestnut Antiquing Powder. This warmed up the colors a little bit and also brought out all the little details int he carvings.
For those of you who are not familiar with Antiquing Powder – it’s an aging alternative to dark wax or glaze and it’s my new obsession! It comes in 9 colors and I use it on almost every piece of furniture I do now. Look at how it transforms a piece:
The first 1/4th of the photo is the piece without any powder, the second 1/4th of the photo is as I was applying the powder, before removing the excess. The last half is what the finished look was.
This is a close up on the replaced piece. You can barely see it if you look really closely – and that was mostly because I didn’t sand it well enough to smooth it out. (Plus the antiquing powder accentuated the line). Still so much better than having it just missing!
[Signature Snippet]
[Link Party Snippet]
