hello Furniture friends Katie here from Salvage by K Scott today we're going to be cleaning
up this disgusting mid-century modern chest that I found in the trash fixing all of its
broken drawers and giving it a completely contemporary makeover
[Music] in case you're new here I have been a full-time Furniture flipper for about the
past six years taking broken unwanted pieces of furniture just like this fixing them up
and turning them back into desirable and useful pieces that people actually want to use in
their homes again instead of them ending up in the landfill this little MCM chest is pretty
typical of the stuff that I find out at the curb it's constructed of laminate over a wood
frame with a few pretty good Nicks and dings this one corner is separating really badly
and it looks like all four of the drawers are broken
[Music] I start all of my flips with a really good deep clean one so I can get rid of all
of the yucky stuff and two so that I have a chance to get really up close and personal
with all of the different parts that might need more attention I am breaking this thing
all the way down removing all the hardware what's left of the broken drawer guides and
the legs vacuuming out all of the cobwebs and dust bunnies and using this disinfecting
and degreasing all-purpose cleaner with a scrub brush and a scouring pad to get this
thing as fresh as I can
oh [Music]
since the drawer bottoms are hardboard I want to get them dried back out as quickly as I
can so I'm going to pop these out in the sun those UV rays are also going to help get rid
of any residual musty old furniture smell that's hanging on in there while everything
dries I'm gonna see what I can do about this top Corner since the frame under these laminate
panels is good wood and I'm gonna have to paint the laminate anyway I think I can just
drill a pilot hole right down through the top and then use a wood screw to bring the
two sections back together [Music] foreign [Music]
[Music] onto the drawer repairs all of the bottoms are loose which is a pretty common
issue with this style of drawer all I need to do to fix this is remove any of these old
Staples that are popping out and then just use some new finishing nails to hold the bottom
to the back piece of wood
all right since I'm going to be using this as kind of a skeleton for my new design I
want to fill in all of the old Hardware holes on the bottom three drawers so that I could
add some new knobs later on and I'm going to use all-purpose Bondo to do that this is
a two-part epoxy filler that comes with this gray putty and a blue cream hardener in a
separate tube those two materials get mixed together and cause a chemical reaction that
sets it once it's cured this stuff is harder than actual wood and it can be sanded nice
and smooth you definitely want to work in a well ventilated space and wear a respirator
when you're working with Bondo because it stinks and you only want to mix up small amounts
at a time whatever you think you can apply in about five minutes from mixing because
after that it starts to stiffen up and it's really hard to work with I also popped a little
piece of tape onto the inside of each hole just so that I could fill these all the way
through nice and solid without having a bunch of it squeezed through the back and make a
mess in the drawer [Music] thank you [Music] after letting that set for about 30 minutes
now I'm ready to sand off the excess so I've got some 100 grit sandpaper on my orbital
sander and I'm going to sand a little bit further than the Bondo through most of this
fake wood grain sticker that's on here to smooth out these scratches and dents that
are on these drawer fronts I also switched out to a bit of a finer grit a 150 to clean
up the sides of the drawers and any marks that are on the insides of the drawers foreign
[Music]
the same process for the body of the dresser 102 smooth out the really hard Bondo and imperfections
on the top and then 150 to scuff up the Slick laminate side panels in the front [Music]
before I move on to anything else I need to fix this torn up drawer Runner the other three
are fine but this one isn't going to allow the new guides that I install on the back
of the drawers to slide properly first I need to get this thing out but my drill won't fit
in there so I get to use a fun tool that I got in my Christmas stocking this year this
is a flexible drill bit extension that fits into the drill just like a normal bit but
then you can kind of snake it around wherever you need to to install or uninstall a screw
[Music]
foreign
I bought a set of these replacement Runners off of Amazon a while ago just to have on
hand because I am nowhere near skilled enough to be cutting my own these are actually meant
for a different type of situation where the channel would be mounted on the underside
of the drawer and it would slide along the track but for my drawers with their nylon
Runners if I flip the track over I can mount it back into the dresser like the old one
and then the guide will hold on to this top shape perfectly I'm just holding this in place
to mark off where I need to drill my pilot hole for the front screw and then I can reattach
the same bracket that was on the old one drill out a countersunk hole for the new front screw
and reinstall it with my extension bit again
all right
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thank you
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here we go now I'm going to install some fresh new guides on the back of the drawers so that
I can get them all in their spots and make sure everything is working well before I go
any further [Music] foreign [Music] okay now we can move on to the fun stuff because that
top drawer is already framed out separately I think I want to keep it like that and then
I want to add these wood lattice strips to the bottom three drawers for some more Dimension
I have had a ton of aggravation trying to figure out a similar design in the past because
if you try to put stuff on the drawers when they're not sitting in their proper places
stuff just never lines up properly so I've got all of the drawers in their homes I laid
the dresser down on its back so that I can figure out the proper placement of where I
want to put these strips I used my miter saw to cut down a bunch to the height of all three
drawers so that I could just lay them out and visualize how this was going to look then
I measured out and found the center of the chest played around with my spacing a little
bit more and then I ended up grabbing the other half of the drawer Runner to use as
a spacer and once I'd figured out how I wanted all of this to go I just used a little bit
of wood glue and some 5 8 inch brad nails to tack the strips down in place I know most
people would pull the drawers out have the strips cut to the height of each individual
drawer and then attach them but this way just made more sense to me to keep everything in
line I'm putting a nail in the strip at the top and the bottom of each drawer and then
once I get them all on there I'll cut the drawers apart with my little Dremel cutter
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oh [Music]
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I totally realize this is a little unorthodox and it's not going to work in every situation
but I've got enough of a gap in between the drawers on this piece to fit the blade and
then I'll use my sander just to get all of the edges perfectly flush [Music]
foreign [Music]
some wood filler over those nail holes is going to camouflage that and once it's dry
I'll sand everything smooth [Music] since the box of the chest is laminate and the drawers
are all now raw wood I want to prime one for extra adhesion on the slick spots and two
to give both different surfaces the same starting texture so that my paint lays nice and evenly
across everything I'm using this kills restoration primer today which is a great heavy duty primer
in a water-based easy soap and water cleanup formula it's really sticky stuff though so
I don't love putting it in my sprayers I prefer to roll it on with either a foam or microfiber
roller and I think one coat should be enough for this now that that primer is dry I don't
really love the look of the gaps between the wood strips and the drawer fronts so I'm going
to fill all of those in with some of this paintable caulking I just squeeze a little
bead into the seam and then press it in and remove the excess with my finger and a wet
paper towel [Music] well that dries I'm gonna keep working get these drawers masked off
and lay out a drop cloth to get ready for paint [Music]
I feel like spraying today and my gravity fed HVLP pneumatic sprayer and I'm going to
be using this super dark blue gray called Ash by Fusion mineral paint it's a durable
acrylic resin furniture paint that you can also brush or roll but my preference is a
sprayed finish I'm just pouring the paint through a strainer to make sure there aren't
any dried paint bits or chunks of pigment in there that might clog up my sprayer and
then I'm also adding about a teaspoon of water to about half of this pint of paint to thin
it out just the tiniest little bit I forgot to hit record but I did go over the primer
really quickly with some 400 grit sandpaper just to keep the surface extra smooth and
now I'm going to spray on my first coat of paint I use a 1.3 or 1.4 millimeter tip on
my pneumatic spray guns and I usually spray with the pressure around 40 PSI [Music] foreign
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that first coat has been drying for just over two hours so now I'm ready to do my second
coat and I think that should be all I need the top is feeling a little bit rough so I'll
just smooth that out again with my 400 grit and get right back to Spring
thank you [Music]
foreign
[Music] ly watching paint dry I'm gonna go ahead and do a paint wash on this top drawer
Fusion's Algonquin color has been my go-to paint wash color lately it's nice and warm
but it still gives that popular bare wood finish you can see this jar is well loved
but not very well taken care of I don't need much for this drawer so what I've spilled
all over the place is going to be more than enough and then I'm just gonna pour in about
three times as much water as paint and brush that on over the bare wood [Music] [Applause]
once you get your paint wash on you need to take it right back off so I just sucked up
any excess of my paint and water combo with a paper towel
[Music] I left all of the paint to dry overnight and now I'm ready to add a top coat Fusion
mineral paint does have a built-in top coat and it's UV and water resistant as soon as
it's cured but I want to add a little bit of extra protection to this anyway so I'm
just going to spray on a few coats of bears water-based polyurethane right on top whenever
I top coat dark colors I like to add a tiny bit of paint to tint the poly it really helps
avoid the streakiness or patchiness that poly can cause over saturated colors like this
there's no secret formula or exact measurement to this just a bunch of poly and a drop of
paint and then gently stir until the color is consistent we don't want to be stirring
too aggressively or adding any bubbles into our top coat again I'm just going to pour
this into my cleaned out gun and spray it on two coats with about an hour of dry time
in between [Music] I'm not loving this top drawer yet the paint wash is nice but I feel
like it just needs something more I have this Gel Stain in Antique Walnut and I think I'm
just going to rub on a layer right over the paint foreign
[Music] that's way better it warmed up the green a little without adding too much dark
color but since this is an oil-based stain that means that I can't use the same water-based
Poly on top of it I do have a bottle of hemp oil handy from another recent project so I'm
going to rub some of that right over the stain once it's dry to add a layer of protection
that won't react to the oil-based stain now it's time to unmask everything drill some
new holes for my new hardware screw the legs back in and pull this thing back together
[Music]
[Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music]
this poor little chest was on its way to the dump but I am so glad that I got the chance
to grab it first and reimagine it for someone else to use [Music]
laughs [Music] I love this warm wood accent against the dark Rich color and the Contemporary
design it's not Factory floor perfect but it is furniture with a sole leave me a comment
and let me know what you think of this one make sure you're subscribed if you love incredible
Furniture Transformations like this one thank you so much for watching today and I will
catch you all next time foreign [Music]