Hardwood & Hardware - 1964 Mobile Home Renovation

Dianna Wood
by Dianna Wood
Have you ever spent 5 hours stripping in the bedroom?
Seriously though. When we started renovating our home, we had determined to restore what was already there (as much as possible). If it was functional, we would clean it up and keep it. The drawer dulls and cabinet hardware was still functional - but covered with three coats of paint. After removing all the hardware, we left them to soak in JASCO paint remover and then both sat down and started scrapping and scrubbing. Man, that stuff is strong - we could feel the burn through a double pair of protective gloves.
The bedroom had both built in closets with drawers beneath and a built in Vanity with cabinets above. The construction was 100% hardwood. No pressed board or particle board to be found.
Along with the drawer pulls were also copper decorative screws which held the handles in place. We even soaked and stripped those. The drawers had to all be sanded down, because the handles had been painted over while still screwed to the drawer fronts and therefore when we removed them there was "chunked" up dried paint all around the edges of where the handles had been.
As much as I like white, on white - we could not live with the three layers of paint on the hardware. After stripping all the hardware and discovering that it was hand forged stamped copper, we sprayed it with an Acrylic coating and after the new paint had dried we re-installed the original hardware.
Although these are not my style. I certainly can't see buying new ones and it's kinda cool to have these 50 year old, very high quality drawer pulls. In fact we found them listed on ebay for $22.00 each!
We've done a bit more re-arranging since this picture was taken, But, you can still get an idea of how the bedroom came out.
Dianna Wood
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Mark Kane Mark Kane on Oct 28, 2014
    Looks great Sis :)
    • Dianna Wood Dianna Wood on Oct 28, 2014
      @Mark Kane What a surprise! I would say that you are incognito, for sure!
  • Glenda D Glenda D on Nov 11, 2014
    Very nice job and those handles turned out great. Did you keep any of the older appliances? I have a 1977 that I would like to restore. My problem is the wall oven It's an O'Keefe & Merritt, Not around any more. It isn't heating right. I need to keep it because I can't afford a new one. Besides the new wall ovens, refrigerators are all too large for the areas designated for them. I am by myself so I will have to do the work. Any idea where to find parts for older appliances.
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