Antique Eastlake Dresser Makeover

Dresser After

Dresser Before

This is a great example of a perfect "before" and "after" photo of an old, beat up dresser that had seen better days and lots of wear. It is an Eastlake style dresser made of solid oak. The top was pretty much destroyed and needed replacement. There's only so much you can do with refinishing and restoration. Sometimes a total replacement is required, such as in the top. 

Jim made a brand new top using sassafras wood, which has a similar wood grain as oak, which matched perfectly with this dresser. He opted to paint it using chalk paint and treated with wax, which protects the finish and makes it easy to clean. He chose a lovely brushed brass for the drawer pulls which looks stunning with the new color.

This dresser has four large drawers and two smaller ones at the top. Each drawer bottom has been replaced since many were either missing or not operative any longer. The drawers were constructed with dovetail joints, so it was made well as new, but as the years pass by, it got its fair share of use and likely, neglect over time. What you see in the "before" photo it the way it looked when we got it home. The "after" photo is what it looked like once it was complete. 

This dresser is also for sale, asking $375.00. It is solid wood and will make a nice addition to your bedroom.

Tavern Chairs' Revival

Chair After

Chair Before

A set of four chairs that very much looked like they'd be at home in a 19th Century English Tavern, had been neglected for a long time and needed life breathed back into them. This photo shows the worst of the four, since it looked like it had been left out in the weather. It was in pretty rough shape. 

The original seat and back were black vinyl, with upholstery tacks surrounding the seat area and sides of the top. The seats were torn and the foam was destroyed. Time to renew.

There was a lovely medallion carving in the center of the back, which was almost invisible prior to refinishing. Made of solid (and I mean SOLID) oak, these chairs must have weighed 40 lbs. each. This made the refinishing and reupholstery project tough, because of how many times needed to move the chairs to complete the work.

To save time, Jim removed the black vinyl and got to work. He opted to take them apart so he could access the areas that needed to be re-glued and repaired and that's the best and proper way to do it. Apart, he sanded the pieces down to bare wood then stained them with English Chestnut stain.  Once the new stain was applied, the chairs were put together and "brought back to life." The final step was sprayed the polyurethane, and wow! The chairs were beautiful and that beautiful flower medallion just popped! 

Once he was done working his magic, it was time for me to work mine. The chairs needed new fabric. My customer and I agreed gray would be a nice color. The old padding was not usable, so each chair got new foam and batting on the seats. As I stated before, these chairs were HEAVY! Since adding material requires a lot of moving the chair around, it was necessary to lift them up to put on my work table then down again on the floor for stapling and then up on the table again to continue other parts. You get the picture. 

The curved back portion of the chair was trickier than it first looked, because each chair needed a template which I had to create from the chair's measurements instead of using the old material, since it was so distorted and badly damaged it was unusable. Upholstery has many challenges, one being sometimes you simply do not know what is involved until you get into it. Such was the case with the backs. Once I figured out that part, measuring the material properly was crucial, because if the measurement was incorrect, it wouldn't fit. 

I created templates out of card stock, which gave me the precise size of each fabric section. I had to line up the top edges of the curved portion of the top prior to stitching, so that once it was pulled into position, it would fit snugly to the bottom edge before I could attach the underside with staples. This required a lot of lifting, turning, more lifting, more turning, etc. Good body mechanics is essential when doing this heavy lifting.

The last step in the process was adding the double welt cord around the seat to finish it off with a polished, professional look. I used hot glue on the double welt cord, as it is the most effective way to attach welt cord, but I also like to reinforce welt cord with tiny nails to make sure it doesn't move over time. Needless to say I was extremely happy to finish these heavy, but lovely, tavern chairs.

His and Hers Twin Rocking Chairs

 

Rockers Before Restoration

Rockers After Restoration

Twin chairs! This was definitely a first for us, having two identical rocking chairs to refinish at the same time. The most surprising feature of these chairs was the size. Each chair weighed in at 60-70 lbs., possibly more. This required both of us to unload them from the customer’s van and bring them into our work space. 

Having chairs such as these as heavy as they were, made working on them quite challenging. They were not only heavy, they were huge! We have a large rocking chair in our living room with a similar style, but ours isn’t nearly as heavy as these were, nor is it as tall as these were.

The keyhole cutout design in the back center of each chair was a unique feature that gave them personality, adding a nice detail. The front of the chairs’ seat had a very rounded and thickness that I could hardly wrap my hand around. Yes, definitely massive. One of the chairs had suffered dog chew damage on the lower right leg spindle. The chairs had been repaired by someone else for the damage prior to us doing the refinishing. 

The chairs were both fairly worn and really cried out to be stripped, sanded and stained. This process was very time-consuming due to the sheer size of these mammoths and the detail, mainly the spindles, which if you’ve read other articles in our blog you know that they require a great deal of time and attention to remove all that old finish. We use work carving tools which allow us to get into the nitty-gritty of the spindles’ curves and tight spot. You’d be surprised at how much stain there is on any item of furniture even though it may look worn. There’s still a lot to remove. And that takes time. There’s simply no getting around that part of this work.

When the chairs were all stripped and sanded, Jim used English Chestnut stain, followed by three coats of polyurethane which will protect them for years to come. Refinishing really shows off the gorgeous woodgrain that was unseen prior to refinishing. That’s the beauty of a full refinish. You can see the woodgrain that is normally not as visible when furniture comes from the factory. Their process is different from hand finishing, therefore has a different look. 

If you've ever wondered if that special piece of furniture you’ve held onto for many years because you don’t know if it’s worth restoring, take a look at the wood. More times than not, once it is stripped, it is better than new because the hand stripping process restores it to its original beauty that was likely not seen when done on the assembly line. The value is already there so refinishing is always worth it. Unless a piece really is made cheaply and has no sentimental value, having it restored/refinished is a great way to preserve a piece of your family’s history or create a new family heirloom for future generations.