Antique Dresser With A "Secret"

Antique Dresser Before

Antique Dresser After

We love antiques. We love the look and feel of them as well as working with them, because unlike mass-produced furniture you tend to see in today's market, antiques have a unique profile, form and structure that is lacking in "modern" furniture. This specific dresser has a great story as well as a unique feature that was discovered after we brought it home.

The photos on the left and lower right are the dresser as we had seen it in the antique store (top) and after we got it home (bottom right). We had purchased the dresser right here in Marine City in December, 2015. Jim and I were
spending a weekend in Marine City for a winter get-away and decided to check out a few of the many antique stores for which Marine City is well known for. Jim spotted this one and it had called to him, so he bought it.

Dresser Before 

Unfortunately, since we had used my car (not his truck) for our weekend, we couldn't bring the dresser home with us, so we had made arrangements to come back to Marine City to pick it up the following weekend. Once we got it home, Jim had made an interesting discovery. The dresser had a center drawer that was "hidden," only accessible by pushing in a small unobtrusive finger hole beneath it, which popped the drawer open. This was likely a place were a woman would store her diamond jewelry, gold or cash. Who knows? But what a great mystery this old gal had to reveal!

Events of our stay that weekend in December of 2015 were slowly unfolding, as if orchestrated by invisible strings. We fell in love with Marine City that weekend, which was during the "Maritime Days" that takes place the first December every year. We were strolling down Water Street, taking in the lights and enjoying the small-town, cozy atmosphere of the town when I uttered words that would soon change our lives; "I think I would like to live here," I had casually said to Jim, who wholeheartedly agreed.

We were living in St. Clair Shores and had been there for over 22 years and were ready for a change. We had always wanted to retire in a place with some "breathing room" between the houses, but couldn't decided exactly where we wanted to end up. Somehow that decision was made for us because not long after I had uttered those words, the events that followed would soon change the course of our lives. We came back the following week and picked up the dresser, but made a vow that spend another weekend in Marine City, so in January, 2016 we came back. We had been talking about moving to Marine City seriously over Christmas but wanted to wait until after the holidays to begin searching seriously.

On our second day, we decided to go look at houses to get a feel for the neighborhood. I felt like we were driving around aimlessly, so I suggested we stop in at a real estate office to see if we could actually get inside a home and see it instead of just driving by. It was winter after all, so we wanted to use our time wisely. Luckily we found a realtor at Bachelor Real Estate, who was able to show us a few houses. The first house our realtor showed us had been empty, but as soon as we stepped into the kitchen, I knew "this is it." You just have a sense about a home that was meant to be. Without going into the details, (and to save several hours of reading), the first house was the one we ended up buying.

We closed on our Marine City home in March, 2016, making many weekend trips to bring items to our "new" home, then moved the rest in early May, 2016. So here we are, almost three years later, having settled in and enjoying our small town life immensely, taking our furniture restoration with us. We still do work for the Metro-Detroit area, and have picked up jobs from other local areas that prior to this move we would not have had. It was an adjustment, but we worked hard to get it right.

So, back to the dresser. Because of the events surrounding the move, our time was consumed with selling our St. Clair Shores house as well as getting ready to move into our Marine City house, so the dresser restoration had to be put "on hold." That summer we were super busy refinishing the entire house's hardwood floors, painting the interior and exterior, replacing all windows and doors and general moving activities as well as still maintaining the other house while it was listed.

There was no time for furniture restoration of any kind during that busy time (although I managed to get in a few small items). Jim had started the dresser, then had to stop again as we got other furniture jobs, so it took a few months for him to finish it. It was in great shape overall, but needed new drawer bottoms and stripping. The original mahogany was beautiful, so he chose red mahogany stain which brought out the wood's natural patina and tones. Finally, after almost three years, the dresser was completed this past weekend after we had found the perfect brass knobs to replace the wood ones. We felt that the knobs we chose were perfect for the period and style of the dresser as well as highlighting the brass keyhole plates. The knobs are like the "bling" or jewelry of an item of furniture. It took a while, but once it was complete, this antique dresser is now one of our favorite restoration pieces and ready for a new home.