Antique China Cabinet Refinished

China Cabinet Before

China Cabinet After

Grandmother's antique China cabinet needed an overhaul. While in pretty decent condition (we’ve seen much worse!) Made of mahogany, this cabinet had plenty of space with shelving on the top and doors and drawers on the bottom. 

The middle top had a decorative piece of wood that had broken and become disconnected, so Jim glued it back together and put it back on top where it belonged.

In the process of restoring this cabinet, it was necessary to remove the decorative wood that covered the upper door to properly stain that area. The glass was removed to preserve and protect it during the restoration process. Each step is carefully taken to get the best results.

Our customer had wanted to replace the original wooden knobs with new ones and she chose black knobs, which looked great with the refinished cabinet. Jim used a red mahogany stain with satin polyurethane which was the perfect finish for this piece. Upon completion, this old cabinet certainly looked much better than when we got it.

Art Deco Vanity Better Than New

 

Vanity after w/o mirror

Vanity Before without mirror

Jim picked up this old vanity from the 1930’s, "art deco style," at an antique shop in Port Huron. It’s got the classic curvy waterfall style as we commonly see in cedar chests. It had five drawers but only four drawer pulls. I had envisioned something completely different, a
refreshing update, so I opted for paint. I chose Sherwin-Williams “Cotton White,” which is one of my favorite off-white colors. This painting preserved the antique look, but with an updated, twenty-first century functionality.

Vanity painted with mirror

Of course, as with every wood project, it’s essential to use a good primer so that the paint will adhere as it should. I actually used two coats of primer for the vanity and mirror. When Jim brought the vanity and mirror home, they were detached, so I had to take the photos separately since we didn’t put it together just for photos. Mirrors are super hard to photograph because they reflect whatever is opposite them, therefore I used a white sheet to block out the basement background (my workspace) but you get the idea. 

The mirror had some really cool design features. At the top there was an inverted curve of wood that had a carved flower motif in the center. That piece of wood, along with two metal brackets, held the mirror in place. 

To prepare the mirror for painting, I removed the mirror by removing the decorative piece of wood along with the mirror brackets, set them aside to be painted a different color. I sanded and primed the mirror and painted it to match the vanity. The bottom of the mirror had a decorative piece of wood that mimicked the front legs with an inverted curve. Both top and bottom wood accents were painted silver glitter. I opted to hand paint the flower in the center of the top mirror wood insert and it was the perfect little touch of glam. I painted the center drawer a bright tangerine and lemon yellow for the rest of the side drawers. I lined the bottom of the drawers with a super sparkly silver drawer liner. It was that perfect special touch that adds a bit of bling.

Once everything was done and the paint had dried sufficiently, Jim installed the new nickel drawer pulls which were the perfect finishing touch to this spectacular old piece of furniture.

Drawer liner center drawer

         

        Drawer liners

   

New nickel hardware

Antique Mahogany Secretary

 

Secretary Before

The art of letter writing is almost a lost art. With the influx of everything

Secretary After

instantaneous with text messaging, e-mail and FaceTime, who wants to take the time to hand write anything? Yet, there’s something appealing to putting pen to paper and feel the words as they appear on your page. This antique mahogany secretary had been in the family for many years and had likely been witness to many such letters. It was probably used for bill paying, keeping track of household expenses and storing those stationary items to keep them accessible when you needed them. Because it was used quite a bit over the years, it was quite worn and needed refinishing. It’s hard to see in the picture, but the “after” photo shows new knobs, which were glass. (Unfortunately they don’t photograph very well.)

Secretary Inside After

Secretary Inside Before

Mahogany is one of my favorite woods to restore. It has such lovely patterns and tones that are rich with color and movement. This is a dream to strip and stain as it takes the new stain quite well. The interior also needed to be stripped, which is quite tedious because it had to come apart, otherwise you can’t reach those little cubby holes where envelopes are kept. It’s time-consuming work, no doubt about it. These things simply take a lot of time. 

There are no shortcuts to quality work. This piece, like many of that period, was a perfect size for a small office and a tidy way to keep track of those pesky papers you don’t want cluttering up your table. After it was stripped, sanded and re-stained then protected with two coats of polyurethane, it was once again a lovely piece of furniture that will be useful for many generations to come.

Beautiful Antique Buffet Refinished

Buffet Before Refinishing

This was one of my favorite pieces to restore. It had been in the family for years belonging to a beloved grandmother who had passed on, so I really wanted to do it justice. Other than a few minor surface scratches on the top, the rest of this buffet was in amazing condition with everything still in tact. It was a fairly large piece, tricky to load in the truck.

Buffet After Refinishing

I love working on mahogany and cherry wood. The top of this
buffet was cherry while the rest of it was solid mahogany. The four front legs had detailed spindles which required a great deal of time and effort to strip thoroughly. I removed the back upper edge so the veneer that had been peeling away could be glued back in place before it was securely glued into the original holes.

Two front drawers and two cabinets, one on each side, gave this buffet a nice, balanced look. I chose to use dark walnut stain with satin polyurethane after everything was stripped and sanded to bare wood, always the first step of any refinishing project. The top received four coats of polyurethane for extra protection and durability.

Brand new hardware made all of our hard work "pop" and looked beautiful with the newly refinished surface. And boy, did it ever look great once it was all done.