1970's Cabinet Makeover

1970's Cabinet Before

Cabinet After Renovation

It's amazing how a bit of creative vision can transpire an ugly, outdated piece of furniture such as this 1970's era atrocity. This may have been popular back in 1972, but by today's standards, it was painfully outdated. Still, it had potential and would prove to be useful once again after a bit of renovation a lot of creativity, or perhaps equal parts of both. It had a black top, that looked suspiciously like a piece of laminate, which made the piece quite durable. However, the cabinet doors simply had to go.

Charlevoix Cherry Antique Dresser

Dresser Before

Dresser After

While on vacation, we came across this dresser at an estate sale at real date written somewhere on it that we could refer to! As with most antiques, it had great bones but needed some love. We found it at a beautiful house on Lake Michigan in Charlevoix.

There was an inscription written in the upper right corner of the

Wine Bar

Cabinet Before

Jim found this lonely cabinet in an antique shop in Kalamazoo.

Wine Bar After

It may have been used as a place to put silverware and linen napkins. The cabinet had definitely seen better days, but seeing its potential, Jim bought it with a thought in mind.

A wine bar, sparked by the top two drawers which lent themselves to lying bottles of wine horizontally, as they
should be kept. This required a bit of ingenuity. First, he removed the old tile top and stripped the entire cabinet free of it's prior red

Danish Chair

Danish Chair Before

Danish Chair After

I love taking on projects that involved such a lovely piece of furniture as this Danish cherry chair. The chair was extremely well made, thus also quite heavy, but after removing the cushion, I realized the weight wasn't in the wood, but in the cushion. Once that was removed, the chair itself was fairly light and easy to handle.

On the back of the chair was a stain, as if someone had spilled a darker stain on top of it and it made its way down the rear left leg. Someone tried to cover up the damage by adding glaze over the legs, which

Antique Oak China Cabinet

China Cabinet Before

China Cabinet After

We acquired this gorgeous oak China cabinet and immediately saw its potential. It was in almost perfect condition, with three mirrors, two glass shelves and two wood shelves. It had the original hardware and needed just a little work to expose its original glory.

Of course, as with all projects, I get "before" photos before beginning any project. Luckily, this large cabinet had wheels, which made it much easier to maneuver.

Other than minor scratches, the cabinet needed little other than touch-up and a good cleaning. I carefully removed the shelves, then unscrewed the angled shelving brackets, each made of brass, as well as the original brass handle and put them aside to be polished. The bowed glass door's molding had a few missing nails, so I used my pin nailer to reinforce the tiny 1/4" molding, holding the glass firmly in place. (I love my small nailer!) This process can be a bit dicy, because the molding holds the glass in place, therefore you don't have a lot of space in which to shoot nails, as the last thing you want to do it break that glass! Once that was done, I cleaned the interior glass first, then the exterior, which showed a lot of dust and smudges, likely from being stored.

Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Set

Table Before Refinishing

Table After Refinishing

Lots of photos for this job! A lovely woman from Madison Heights had acquired this mid-century modern dining table and chairs at a church rummage sale. She didn't want to tackle the refinish and re-upholstery job herself, so she called me. After she brought the set over, I was excited to get to work.

This was indeed a unique table and after a few hours of sanding, it proved to be quite the challenge. I decided to research it because I'd never seen anything quite like it. Lo and behold, it was a stranded bamboo table top!

Captain Chair Before

Captain Chair After

Out of curiosity, I researched the hardness of wood. As most people know, oak is among one of the hardest of woods, but on a scale of 0-5, oak ranks only 3.4 on the hardness scale, whereas bamboo ranks an astounding 4.7! "Ah," I thought, that's why it took so long to strip and sand this incredible surface. Four days later and it was finally ready to be refinished. I used a "natural" stain and three coats of polyurethane.

She didn't want the chairs refinished, only cleaned, so I used a cleaner specifically for wood and hand-polished each chair. The cushions were another story. The original cushions were, well, ugly. The fabric was typical of a 1950's decor, scratchy and quite uncomfortable. That could be because there was simply nothing left of the once-soft foam rubber bits. They had completely disintegrated into a substance resembling yellow-green dust. I'm so glad I removed them outside!

Seat Cushion After

Seat Cushion Before

After the fabric was removed, I peeled away the former "cushioned" seats with a large putty knife to separate them from the wood base, then scraped the powdery substance into the trash. The very worst seat crumbled so bad, it was all powder! One of the seat bottoms had to be replaced with new plywood because it was cracked and anyone other than a five-year-old would have eventually landed on the floor.

Chair Before

Chair After

Once all that was accomplished, I completed took apart the old seat cushions and used them as templates for the new seats. (I'm glad I did as seats tend to be slightly varied in size.) It was a long, tedious task to be sure, but well worth it as the new seats fit perfectly. I ended up surprising the customer by adding a corded edge, original to the first seat cushion. This not only made the edge look better, it gave the seats a defined, linear finish and wasn't too difficult to incorporate into the fabric layout.

My customer was very satisfied with the dining set and I must say, it looks terrific in her kitchen (see photo below.) I hope she enjoys this unique dining room set for many years to come.

Table and Chairs at Customer's Home

Side Table

Side Table Before

Side Table After

I saw this little table at a resale shop for $6.86. I had been looking for a table such as this to keep my quilting supplies organized because it has a bottom shelf, so when I stumbled upon it, I bought it. The table was originally used with a built-in lamp, which I removed as I hadn't planned on using it that way. The lamp was ugly and in the way.

Never underestimate a smaller project! Just because this table was small, didn't mean it wasn't difficult to refinish. The spindles, I knew, would make it difficult because the area between them was hard to get to, so I ended up removing them and sanding that entire strip, much easier. The spindles were also spinning around, since they had not been secured to the table. That was my first priority, to make sure they stayed put, so after I had spent many days and hours stripping, sanding and refinishing the table, I used my pin nailer to secure the spindles so they no longer rotated. The hole left from where the lamp base once was secured had to be filled in, so I ended up cutting a small piece of wood to best match the opening, then glued it in place.

Ugh, this was a tedious, frustrating job, as most of them for myself turn out to be, but nevertheless, I'm happily using the table to keep my quilting supplies neatly tucked away underneath, on the shelf instead of dangling all over my floor!

Table With A Twist

Table After

Table Before

My friend, Frances, had asked me to refinish this unique table which
belonged to her husband. I had never seen one quite like it. What made this table so different was that the entire top swiveled. Perhaps it had been used as a television table many years ago. In any event, what she saw was an ugly table was merely a nice table with an ugly, worn finish. It just needed a little love.

First things first, I removed the pivoting top to reveal a large metal swivel mechanism which needed some persuasion, therefore, I greased the bearings and cleaned the metal, making the mechanism much easier to rotate. It was mounted to a rather thin, broken piece of masonite, which I replaced with a piece of 1/4" plywood. Much better.

Solid Cedar Chest

Cedar Chest Before

Cedar Chest After

A good friend had contacted me about refinishing an antique cedar chest that had belonged to his wife's grandmother. Up for the challenge, I took on the job with anxious enthusiasm. When he'd brought it over, it had one broken leg, the lower left front had been knocked off. Luckily, someone had kept that original leg, therefore it was easily fixable. I talked him into keeping the wheels, which added character and made the petite chest easy to relocate once it was refinished. After the repairs were made, it was ready to refinish.

Charming Antique Desk

Desk Before

Desk After

This antique mahogany desk was an amazing yard sale find. Although the top left edge molding was broken, the bones were good, more importantly, the handles were all intact, a huge plus! I also knew it was a big refinishing job since I wasn't sure how to replace that top rail.

My first goal was to remove all the hardware before stripping the entire desk. I put all the pieces in a closed container so I don't misplace them. (This is the preferred method to which I keep track of small items.) This desk was unique, since all four sides needed stripping, as the backside can face the room if chosen. Normally the back of furniture remains unfinished, since most are placed against a wall. Because the back had been allowed to be seen required additional stripping and sanding.

The edge molding needed a great deal of detail sanding with an orange stick, all done by hand. The lower left edge molding was missing, so that too would need to be addressed. I ended up scrapping the top molding because it would be impossible to replace it and have it look the same, but not all was lost as I was able to salvage it and create the missing molding on the center drawer edge as well as the missing molding on the lower left inside of the desk. That was I was guaranteed to match the red mahogany stain, while maintaining the integrity of the piece.

After I removed all the brass hardware, I started the intense stripping process. It was quite time-consuming, between camping trips and other projects. I would spend evenings sitting on my desk polishing the various components of the hardware. Each drawer had seven (7) individual pieces; the handle, two coin-shaped brass rings, two screws and two nuts, which were round, making them a bit challenging to remove. This is one of the features of a very old piece of furniture; the hardware is usually not exact and quite different from modern hardware, down the the nuts (no pun intended.) I used copper cream, which works beautifully to remove tarnish from brass, then an actual brass polish to really give it a shine.

Taking the extra time to clean the hardware to its original condition makes any furniture piece look 100% better! The clean hardware is the "bling" to the furniture's new finish and well worth it.

Mosaic Table

Table Before No Top

Table After Mosiac

This table belonged to a friend who had passed away. It came to
me without a top. I liked the corner detail, which was hidden. My idea was to turn this little neglected gem into a work of art and as I looked at it, an idea came to mind.

First I assessed it. There wasn't much wood surface showing, so why not paint? I chose to paint it totally black. Next it needed a new top. The curved edges lent themselves to a different style. Something else other than wood would set this table off. Then it came to me. Mosaic. It was perfect! I knew I wanted it to have a bit of "bling," so I used mirror with a cobalt blue border.

Table Before

Table Before

When I got into the center area, I knew I wanted a design, and thanks to
my granddaughter, I came up with a peace sign. She was my inspiration for the peace sign because she loves them. Reminiscent of the 1960's, I thought it was also the perfect solution to my design. But that was not enough. It needed more, so I decided to paint the curved designs in the corners to bring out the flowers and make them match the colors of the glass mosaic I chose. The table was finally how I had envisioned it to be. The table had taken on a whole new look...from neglected and broken to a work of art.

Antique Table

Table Before

Table After

This antique table belonged to a cousin's husband who obtained it
from his grandmother. He estimated it was about 100 years old. It showed its age as it was in rough shape, but with a little sanding and love, the table would be good as new. The table was made of walnut and once sanded, the wood underneath the rough finish came through. It was indeed a beautiful piece!

The legs took time because of their shape and detail, so I spent a great deal of time working on them, making sure I had removed all the old finish so that it could accept the new stain easily. This table required careful sanding because of the fluted legs, a great deal of detail. After it was sanded and stripped, I chose a walnut stain with two coats of semi-gloss polyurethane finish. Once it was done, it looked as it had 100 years ago, better than new. Needless to say, our cousin was thrilled with the table and planned on using it for years to come.