hello welcome to salvaged by K Scott my name is Katie and I am a full-time Furniture refinisher
who has dedicated my business to rescuing forgotten and abandoned Furniture pieces from
the trash and turning them into beautiful useful items again in this video I'm going
to show you how I took this antique dresser that I picked up at auction and gave it a
much lighter brighter tan or beige washed wood finish
oh [Music] when I found this Depression era piece in an online auction last week I was
happy to bid sixty dollars for it and kind of take a risk that it would be worth my time
and money without seeing it in person first I didn't have much of an idea about what I
was getting into from the photos online but I knew that I could probably make it work
this is a nice quality piece of furniture but it's not a high value hard to find original
finish antique piece the top surface has a thick coat of a hard enamel paint on it and
the rest of the dresser has been coated in what looks like a semi-transparent stain and
poly in one that's kind of sloppy and just not doing this piece any justice I could see
from the inside of the drawers that I had some nice solid oak dovetail joinery that's
already had a few repairs and this beautiful original Hardware but the first thing that
I wanted to do was test this white paint for lead lead was added to a lot of paints especially
whites up until the 1970s and it can be pretty harmful if you don't know that it's there
and then start scraping or sanding turning it into dust I always have these testing swabs
on hand and they're really easy to use you just dip the swab in some water and then rub
it onto the surface for about 30 seconds if the color changes to a pink or purple shade
it's positive for lead but luckily my swabs stayed nice and bright orange [Music]
foreign [Music]
since this is a really hard feeling enamel paint that I think is going to be a pain to
scrape or sand I decided to go ahead and use a heavy duty chemical stripper to remove it
this Circa 1850 is Hardcore stuff you definitely need to wear some Splash proof goggles thick
gloves and a respirator while you're working with it and I usually try to crack the window
or the garage door as well you need to make sure that you read the instructions and safety
recommendations on the can before you use any products like this [Music]
thank you I always like to apply way more gel than you could ever think is necessary
and it's never enough but I just brush it on with a chip brush and then I like to cover
everything up in some plastic to keep the gel from drying out while it's working away
at the paint and I decided that since I was already geared up that I may as well do the
drawers while I'm at it
foreign [Music] it usually takes about 30 minutes for this gel to be ready to scrape
so once it looked like it had done its thing I came in with my metal scraper and started
getting all the gunk off of there I grabbed a cardboard box out of the recycling so that
I could collect all of this mess in one spot and once I'm done I can take this to the hazardous
material collection facility to get rid of it properly [Music] thank you [Music] I did
have a few stubborn spots that look like they're stuck where maybe the original finish had
already worn off when this paint was applied so I put on another layer of stripper weighted
the same 30 minutes again and then it seemed to release a little bit easier once I had
most of it off I grabbed some mineral spirits and four odd steel wool to start scrubbing
up the rest of the residue and neutralize the stripper [Music]
foreign the wet wood was super soft after all of this so I left everything to dry back
out overnight the next morning was pretty chilly in the garage we had a big snowstorm
overnight so I had to pop the heater on before I flipped the dresser onto its side to start
tackling the rest of the Finish respirator and safety glasses back on but I decided that
my carbide scraper would be a faster and probably less messy way to get through the top of this
stuff and then I could just sand down the rest of the dark stain foreign [Music] I used
some 120 grit on my sander to get these surfaces all the way back to the bare wood and as I
went I quickly realized that what I thought was a solid oak dresser was actually all maple
on the outside and Only Oak on the inside and the back it doesn't really matter for
the tan washed finish that I want to do on here but I thought it was interesting foreign
[Music]
[Music] I spent about six hours working my way around all of the surfaces with my scraper
and my sander which is a lot this is a very labor intensive process and not the kind of
refinishing for the faint of heart but it will produce a really stunning finished product
once I was happy with how the body was looking I went over the top to get any remaining paint
and stain and then I did those drawers as well foreign
so the drawers are all rubbing on
these drawer stops which is pretty normal especially on dressers where it's wood drawers
rubbing on wood guides like that but I'm pretty sure why it's happening in this case is because
none of the guides on this side are where they're supposed to be because this is all
separated
so I need to figure out how to squish the two legs back together so that this panel
sits in between them properly and all of these slides sit in their little tracks back there
properly and that should fix the drawer rubbing problem
so this side panel is actually held in with just two Nails there's one at the top and
then where is it right there the one on the bottom has broken so I assume it's about the
same situation on the other side and that's why that panel is loose and over on the other
side there's one nail there and one nail there holding it
so I have to get everything back in place
and then pop some new Nails in I think
I have to get this back in there and then put a Nails in from behind to hold it I didn't
have enough arms or hands to get everything where it needed to be and then hold it there
while I nailed it back together so Mr salvaged to the rescue once we had everything situated
where it was supposed to sit I just popped some new Nails in to keep everything in place
with all that fixed I was ready to start my finished sanding and get all of these rough
stripped surfaces smoothed out and ready for my new stain or paint wash it's a paint wash
I switched out my sander to some 180 grit and then I really slowly sanded each section
I used this little hand sanding form to help me get around the routered edge and into any
of the tight Corners that the sander wouldn't fit and once I had everything done I realized
that I had completely forgot about the mirror I laid the mirror and the harp down on my
bench and unscrewed the hinges that allow the mirror to swivel and then I just carefully
pried up the cardboard backer with my flathead screwdriver foreign
[Music] usually there's a date stamped on the back of old mirrors like this but there
wasn't one under here just this Spritz silvered glass stamp unless the m1026 is a date is
that a date what do you think I pulled the glass out of the frame and set it aside and
then started strip sanding the same way that I'd done to the rest of the dresser when I
got around to the Little Flower applique on the top I grabbed my screwdriver again to
pry it up off the three little finishing nails that we're holding it on and I got my first
look at the original finish of this thing from the black and orange kind of striae look
I think it was probably a faux tiger oak finish when it came off the factory floor it was
a really popular way to make less expensive Woods like maple look like a quarter-sawn
oak a tiger oak faux finish on the outside also explains the solid oak drawers inside
cool there was one little chip of missing veneer on the side panel with a few superficial
cracks so I filled all of those in with some natural colored wood filler and then smooth
that out with my sander again once it was set after all that sanding even with my sanders
hooked up to my shop vac the garage was still pretty dusty so I took a few minutes to clean
up the floors a bit and then I wiped down the dresser with a staticky microfiber cloth
and finally it's time for the tan wash I'm using Fusion mineral Paints color Algonquin
for this but you can use any color of any water-based paint that you want to I'm mixing
my wash about one part paint to two parts water if you want a bit more of an opaque
look you just use more paint if you want it to be more translucent you add more water
it's really not a huge deal there's no science to it I used a big zebra brush to apply my
wash in about 12 inch sections and as soon as I had the area painted I went right back
over it with a clean rag to pick up all of the excess I think if you're in a drier climate
you'd probably want to have a little Mister bottle with some more water nearby so that
you can spray the surface surfaces and keep the paint from drying out too fast but other
than that this technique is so easy I always make sure to go over the wet Edge where the
sections meet just to blend them together and avoid any harsh lines and when I'm wiping
I like to go from one end all the way to the other so that I don't get any start and stop
spots where there's more pigment [Music]
thank you [Music] once I got done with the drawer fronts I decided to carry the wash
all the way down the sides and I even did the insides of the drawers to keep everything
the same tone and I really liked the way that that was looking I left my paint to dry and
went inside to clean up the hardware I wanted to soak it in some vinegar and boiling water
to loosen up all the gunk but I was out of regular white vinegar so these got to soak
in some fancy red wine vinegar instead once these were cool enough to handle I pulled
them out and then just scrubbed them down with some Bar Keepers Friend and an old toothbrush
I wanted to keep a lot of the patina that was on here but just clean up some of the
stain that was stuck to them and the dirt that was on there as well [Music]
instead of trying to scrub the finish off of this flower with stripper and probably
ruining it I thought I would be better off to paint it to match the wood so I added some
of the Algonquin and then just rubbed it back a little bit and I think I got pretty close
[Music] I decided to seal up and protect this look with some of this finishing oil from
Fusion it's a wood conditioner and top coat made from tung oil linseed oil vegetable wax
and some solvents that will actually penetrate into the wood and create a waterproof and
scratch resistant surface this is the natural or clear oil and it does come in a few different
colors as well so you can stain and finish all in one step if one of their colors is
what suits your needs but because it's an oil-based product it does have a yellow or
Amber tone that will warm up the color I've got going on here so that's something to keep
in mind it does also require some mineral spirits to clean up your brushes afterwards
you won't be able to clean it up with soap and water I brushed a layer of the oil over
all of the surfaces and left it to soak in for about 30 minutes then just like I did
with my paint I grabbed a clean Rag and wiped away any excess oil you can add additional
coats to increase the sheen but I'm personally a fan of a softer matte finish right now so
one coat is good for me once my oil finish was dry enough to handle I put the mirror
back together with some fresh finishing nails and then reinstalled the hinges foreign [Music]
I brought everything inside and set it all back up I added just the tiniest bit of wood
glue into the keyholes to make sure that the escutcheon plates stayed put and then I added
back the poles oh
foreign
[Music] here's a reminder of my original auction find and here is my fixed up reimagined tan
washed piece is this a finish that you've done before or something that you'd like to
try out
[Music] foreign [Music]
I'll leave a few more wood finish videos here for you to watch next if you're interested
thank you so much for hanging out with me today I will catch you all next time [Music]