this video is sponsored by rzmask i pulled this early mid-century modern style chest of drawers
out of someone's trash it was in pretty rough shape when i brought it home
but like all of my trash vines i was pretty sure that i could fix it up
and turn it back into a piece that someone will cherish again
this poor chest was worse for wear when i found it it had these amazing handles but they were
super tarnished and corroded the veneer around the top edge here was just toast and the top
was pretty trash too because of all of that i was planning on painting this one in order to save it
but i very quickly ended up changing directions i went ahead and dug into my usual prepping process
here to assess things a little further and see what else i could find while i was cleaning
i always start by pulling all of the drawers out and taking a look for any loose bottoms or broken
runners and i usually find something left behind in these pieces but i definitely wasn't expecting
to find an entire sporting goods store my boys were pretty excited about these bonus gifts
i vacuumed out the dust out of the bottom and washed everything down with some tsp alternative
that will cut through all of the dirt on this thing and also break down any old furniture
polish or wax residue that's on the surface so that when i get to sanding i'm not grinding any
of that down into the wood pores i also removed all of the hardware and set that aside for later
since a lot of the edge veneer was already gone and the rest of it was barely holding
on i just grabbed a metal putty knife and peeled most of it right off to get the bits
that were still holding on i grabbed my surf prep sander
my rz dust mask and some 80 grit sandpaper to blast off those last little bits
this mask is made for the dust life rz masks and rz filters are specifically designed with comfort
and safety in mind they've got multiple shell materials shell styles and filter types to choose
from an rz mask is really ideal for a variety of tasks and provides a really comfortable ppe for
all day use their styles come in multiple sizes so you can get a good fit for your unique face shape
and they're really easy to put on and take off they have an adjustable nose piece so your
glasses won't fog up they're machine washable and have replaceable filters that catch 99.9
of particulates down to 0.1 of a micron check out rzmask.com to find the right style and fit for you
and use my code in the description box to save 20 next i switched out my sandpaper to a 120 grit to
see what i could do about the damage on the top i didn't want to be removing a lot of material here
and risk sanding through this thin veneer so i went really slow with this medium grit and the
rest of the finish just powdered away and revealed some incredible walnut wood grain
well now i'm in a predicament my plan was to paint this whole dresser in a solid color and maybe
leave some of the walnut exposed on the drawers because they weren't quite as beat up but this top
sanded down so easily and so nicely there's a couple of little chunks
out of it but i'm pretty sure with a little bit of walnut colored wood filler they won't be an
issue but what do i do about this i don't have anywhere local where i can get walnut veneer
i'm gonna have to think on this for a bit i'm gonna have to think on this for a bit
and see if there's a way that i can
save this walnut
what if i paint this
and maybe do a band framing out the top
leave the walnut in the middle
that'll look goofy if i just paint this and leave everything else walnut that will look goofy
what do i do
what do i do oh there's a big hole there
all right i'm gonna have to stop and think on this for a bit while i pondered what to do with
that giant veneerless edge around the top of the dresser i went ahead and sanded the drawers
the inside of the top drawer had been finished with this orange stuff and there was a really
big stain on the bottom but with some more sanding i was able to clean it up a ton
it's not perfect but it's better than it was and when i finally quit for the day i googled
2-inch walnut veneer and found a couple of options on amazon so i ordered one and just waited a few
days for that to show up once my iron on edge veneer banding had arrived and i picked up some
walnut colored wood filler it was time to get back to work the new veneer was a totally different
color and tone from the stuff on the dresser which is completely normal when working with
wood so i grabbed some of this red toned english chestnut stain from bear and watered it down a
ton to see if i could get this new veneer a little bit closer to the original i cut
myself a little test swatch and brushed on that super light stain and i think that helped a lot
next i wanted to take off the base from the box so that i could
sand that and get all of the cobwebs on the bottom that i missed when i was cleaning the first time
so i just followed the screws around the inside and that popped right off i laid the box down on
its side on a drop cloth so that i could work on my new veneer without struggling against gravity
i grabbed myself a scrap piece of wood a square a sharp blade and my strip of edge banding and
then set my iron on almost the highest setting i measured up the length that i needed for the
side and then cut that to a square edge then i laid it down where i wanted it i kept the
bottom edge flush and left any overage hanging off the top of the dresser so that i had room to cut
that off later once i had it where i wanted it i grabbed my hot iron and started melting that glue
you want to use a dry iron for this no steam or spray settings and preferably you've got a crappy
old iron that you use only for garage projects so that you don't get glue melted onto your good
clothes iron this is totally uh do what i say not what i do moment but i just moved the iron
back and forth over the section until i felt the glue had melted and then immediately after taking
that heat away i used my little block of wood here to really press and burnish that veneer
down and make sure there was a super tight bond and everything was really stuck after that had
cooled for just a few minutes i flipped the whole thing upside down onto my scrap piece of wood and
used my box cutter to cut off that overage nice and flush hello there little ant friend
that left me with the tiniest little lip of glue and wood so i wrapped my block with some
more sandpaper and really carefully sanded that to a nice smooth seam and once i had that first
side set it was just rinse and repeat on the other side and the front
so
i sanded the rest of the original finish off of the sides and then
i noticed that this bottom brace piece was broken so i grabbed some wood glue and a blunt tipped
syringe and just loaded up that break with glue and then clamped it up and let it dry
while that was doing its thing i moved on and got to sanding the base piece i added a foam interface
pad to my sander to help me mold around these curves and that made for some pretty quick work
so
this base section is made of maple which is a lot lighter of a wood than the walnut veneer
that is on the rest of the chest so i put that same red stain over it in an
attempt to have it better match once i do my stain over the whole piece and i also took this time to
stain that new veneer strip and filled in all of the little spots on the top that needed it
once the filler was dry i sanded it and gave the other surfaces one last smooth out with some
180 grit sandpaper and then used a tack cloth to pick up any dust that was sticking around
to restain this guy i used this salmon water-based stain in number 109 walnut i
poured it into a clean piece of recycling and used their stain applicator sponge to
rub it onto the chest one surface at a time since this stain is water-based it's really
user-friendly it's got no odor at all and it re-wets itself so you don't get any lap marks
and it gives a really nice even one coat color
you just rub it into the wood grain and then use a clean rag to wipe back the excess it also dries
nice and fast so it can be top coated with either an oil or water-based product in about an hour
so
do
so
i left my stain to dry and took the crusty hardware into the house i filled up a pot with a
50 50 mix of water and vinegar and then boiled the handles for about 15 minutes to loosen up all of
that junk i used some tongs to pull the hardware out of the vinegar and while it cooled down a
bit i sprinkled it with some bar keeper's friend and once it was cool enough to handle i scrubbed
it with some super fine steel wool all of that corrosion came right off but these were only brass
plated and unfortunately a lot of that finish came off too so i ended up needing to paint these
i dried them off really well and then took them outside and put them in a little box and sprayed
on a few coats of bright gold spray paint to give them their original shiny brass look back
i had a few different options to seal up and protect this piece
but ultimately i decided on this verithane diamond wood finish in a satin sheen it's pretty much my
go-to to use on painted projects so i'm very familiar with how it applies and how it holds up
i gave it a really good stir and then filtered some into my gravity fed hvlp spray gun
this product goes on really nicely with a sponge as well but spraying is easier for me
i gave it a pretty juicy coat on the top because that's what's going to get
the most wear and then i dialed back my flow for the sides and the drawer fronts
after the first coat of poly had dried for two hours i gave it a super light
sand with a super fine sandpaper and then applied one more coat
i let that top coat dry overnight and then the base got screwed back on
as did all of the original hardware so let's take one
more look at what this chest looked like when i found it and here is the final product
so
i hope you enjoyed coming along for this mid-century modern
restoration have a fantastic rest of your day and i will catch you all next time