This guy stayed in my garage for 8 months before I decided to tackle him. The first step was to clean this beast to see how deep the scars and scratches were. Using soapy water on the outside and Windex on the inside it was clean but still butt ugly.

The next step was to get out the orbital sander and take the bumps and scars out. When dealing with a piece that is 95% veneer you have to be careful you don’t sand too deep. What I found was veneer missing on parts of the drawers. That issue caused me to rethink just using a poly coating over the wood.

My first thought was to use a dark coastal blue just on the drawers. The more I thought about it the less I liked the idea. So I got out a pine board and tried out several colors to see how they would look. They all looked good, so I used them all. I painted three coats of paint on the drawers and put polyurethane on the sides and top. The brass pulls were very unique. To clean them I boiled them in 2 parts water, one part white vinegar and a tablespoon of salt and cleaned them with steel wool. What I thought were brass knobs were not. They were a dark aluminum which is typical for the 1950’s. They looked even better than the painted brass.

The pine wood strips on the drawers, dresser and feet I decided to just poly to give contrast.

So I now think this MCM dresser is my favorite. It challenged me on many levels but I am glad I rescued it from Drastic to Fantastic.