Hello friends Katie here from Salvage by K Scott full-time Furniture fixer upper about
to get started work on what's left of this vintage vanity [Music]
this would have originally had a big mirror that sat behind these two drawer towers and
a little stool so that you could sit in front and get ready for your day but when I found
it at a local Second Hand Shop this was all that was left they were marketing it as a
kid's desk but I think it's going to serve the best new purpose separated into a set
of nightstands I've done this lots of times before but usually the holes left on the sides
where the two units are connected mean that there's really no other choice but to paint
and cover up that damage but on these I really want to try and keep all of this beautiful
Walnut veneer intact so once I get them apart I'm going to attempt to camouflage the resulting
imperfections and the veneer damage that these already have with some markers and toner lacquer
I've never done anything like that before so fingers crossed it goes as planned I also
really want to keep this original Hardware but one of the metal jobs is broken I've looked
everywhere I can think online to try and find a replacement and even had an idea to maybe
create a mold and use some resin to sort of recast the missing chunk but I just don't
feel confident that that's going to hold up very well over time so I think ultimately
I'm gonna end up swapping these out for something new to get these apart I'm going to use my
screwdriver and my hammer just to start prying off this back piece and once I get this off
of here I'll figure out how to tackle the Shelf
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thank you
[Music] okay so it looks like the rail for the top drawers actually needs to sit in this
little jig that's nailed onto the backer board to hold it in place so I'll have to keep these
and figure out how to reattach them when I'm ready to install the new back pieces foreign
every other vanity I have ever worked on the center shelf is held in there with a few screws
but on this one it's all Nails which makes it a little bit harder for me to get at I
assume there's also some wood glue in here so I'm going to use my heat gun and yes I
think this might be the very first prototype of a heat gun ever created but I'm going to
use this to warm up the wood glue and soften it a little bit to help me get these glue
blocks and then the Shelf separated with as little damage to the veneer as possible [Music]
gathered the nails is going to be to gently twist the unit away from the shelf and just
start pulling out those nails [Music]
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okay I was worried but that came apart really nicely [Music] I gave both units a really
quick clean with some white lightning which is just a heavy duty Degreaser and then rinse
them off with some clean water before I started to work on getting this lacquered finish off
I started off with my carbide scraper but my blade is getting dull and it's just not
cutting through as well as it should be so I think I'm actually going to switch to sanding
I could also use a chemical stripper here to remove this finish and not need to sand
as much but I don't really want to deal with the goop and extra washing and drying time
involved in that so I'm going to kind of chance it here and sand with a 120 grit going slowly
and cautiously and hopefully not sand through or blow through this thin veneer foreign
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now that I've got all of the old finish off I need to start repairing all of these damage
spots there are a bunch of these loose strips and a few pieces where it's completely missing
mostly just around the bases so I've got some wood glue in a blunt tip syringe I get these
off of Amazon and I'm just going to push the glue up as far under the veneer as I can without
making these breaks any worse and then I'll clamp it down and let it dry overnight
thank you
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for the spots where the veneer is just gone and all of the nail holes on the side I'm
going to fill all that stuff in with some of this Walnut colored wood filler [Music]
these are the new knobs that I found they take a single screw but they've got a nice
base on them so they almost cover up all of the original Hardware holes there's just the
tiniest bit on each side that's not hidden so I'm going to need to fill those in too
I generally like to use an epoxy style filler on Hardware holes like this so I grabbed my
stick of quick wood which is kind of like wood Play-Doh it has two parts so you just
cut off a chunk of however much you think you're going to need and then mix the white
and tan putty together until you get a consistent color I like to roll it into little noodles
and then just drop it through the hole and then pack it in there for a nice tight fill
and because I don't really want to do too much more sanding on this veneer I try not
to leave too much excess on the top I let this set up for about 10 minutes and then
I came back before it was completely hardened and used just our razor blade to really carefully
cut it flush with the wood ready for day two it's time to pull off all of these clamps
and then sand all of my wood filler spots smooth and instead of sanding with my mechanical
sander I think I'm gonna be safer doing my finished sand with some 220 grit by hand it's
just going to let me get the wood where I need it to be without any of the added anxiety
of accidentally sanding away too much wood [Music] oh
[Music] as I was working my way around these I decided to pull off these crusty rusty old
feet I'll put some fresh ones on here later I cleaned up all the sanding dust and now
I'm going to spray on some of this sanding sealer to get a look at what the finished
veneer looks like and start experimenting with my little arts and crafts project I have
this box of Crayola pencil crayons in some skin tones so I thought I'd play with these
on the hardware holes to see if I could hide them a bit since they're going to be mostly
covered by the new knobs anyways it's not the end of the world if this doesn't go as
planned and since I've sealed up the wood a bit already if I need to wash it off I'll
be able to do that so the pencil crayon or I should say colored pencils for my American
friends didn't really stick to the epoxy filler as nice as I would have liked them to but
after playing around for a bit I think I did a pretty decent job at blending these in I'm
going to spray another layer of sealer over this to keep it where it is and then I think
I'm gonna switch up to this set of markers that I have on hand too and see how they work
on the rest of the repairs before I put the sanding sealer on the boxes I want to color
match a couple of these pieces here on the front that aren't covered with the Walnut
veneer so I'm just using some general finishes Antique Walnut gel stain on those [Music]
oh
I found this set of water-based markers on Amazon you can definitely buy stain markers
that are specifically made for this purpose but they're kind of pricey and this isn't
the kind of thing that I do often or plan on doing a lot in the future so I thought
this cheaper version was worth a try I'm just using the different Browns and beiges to try
and match the wood grain that's already here and connect the patches to the real stuff
and because that sealer is already on there the marker doesn't soak in or absorb right
into the wood filler so I'm just using my fingers to kind of tap or Pat it in and just
blend it a little it's definitely not perfect but I think it's pretty darn good and the
toner Locker that I'm going to use over this should help me hide it even more [Music] this
is the spot where that shelf sat so there's a little discoloration between the wood that
was covered by that and the wood that's been exposed to the Sun for all those years so
here's kind of a before and after the left side is done with my markers and I think that
Blended in pretty well
foreign [Music] foreign
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toner lacquer over all of the surfaces this is a clear Locker that's got a little bit
of pigment in it and it adds color to the surface without hiding all of the wood grain
you have to apply this in really light coats because it can get really drippy really easily
and it's also stinky stuff so you want to make sure you're wearing a good respirator
and have a well ventilated space [Music] here's another before and after the left has two
coats of the toner lacquer on it and the right is just the sanding sealer I ended up doing
a total of three layers over every surface before I was happy with the coverage and then
I applied another two layers of just clear satin lacquer on top to build up a little
extra protection
[Music] now that the lacquer is dry I can drill my new holes in the center of the original
holes for my new knobs and get those put on and then I need to deal with that drawer Runner
piece and the backer boards so this is the bracket that holds the top drawer Runner and
it was originally nailed onto the backboard but I think if I add a couple of spacers on
the top and the bottom I can actually screw it right into the frame and make it a little
more secure [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]
I picked up a 2x4 sheet of this eighth inch thick birch plywood at Home Depot and just
had them cut it down to size of the store and I'm going to use my brad nailer to secure
these to the backs and finish these off
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foreign [Music]
this vanity was pretty useless as it was at the second hand shop but now it gets to be
loved again as a stunning set of Walnut bedside tables my little marker hack really helped
me with the damage on these things they're far from perfect but they are beautiful vintage
Quality Furniture and I'm definitely pleased with my finished product leave me a comment
and let me know what you think thank you so much for watching today I hope you have a
fantastic rest of your day and I will catch you all next time [Music] thank you [Music]
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