Old Dresser Turned MCM Dream

Amanda
by Amanda
4 Materials
$100
4 Days
Medium

Everyone is running for mid century modern furniture right now! I found this old dresser on marketplace for $10... it didn't look like much but I knew the bones will give me that true MCM trend.

Look for good bones


If you ignore the hardware and thick paint job, then you can see how the base structure here is all clean lines... very MCM.

Strip it down!


I coated the entire dresser with Citri Strip Gel using an old paint brush... brush it on nice and thick. Then cover the gel with suran wrap to sit overnight (the wrap keeps the gel wet and working)

Seal it up for the night


Wearing gloves, press the wrap nice and snug to the coated wood and let it sit overnight... or 12 hours.

Remove stripper


Scrape the CitriStrip gel off with a plastic scraper and clean with soap and water. This picture represents the product of an additional 4 hour soak in gel stripper... there was three layers of paint to get through!

Sanding!


I started with 80 grit on my rotary sander and worked my way up to 220... but LOOK! this beautiful wood grain was hiding under all that paint!

Stain and seal


The original plan was to stencil the drawers to cover up the original holes, but after applying the Early American stain the holes weren't too bad and we knew we'd be covering the visibility with the new hardware.


Also, I sealed with poly so I knew that would deepen the color as well.

Final look!


The customer and I fell in love with this hardware from amazon for the piece.


Under all that paint was a very trendy MCM dresser.

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Amanda
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3 of 5 comments
  • Loretta Loretta on Aug 28, 2020

    So the paint originally was brown. Just amazing how the sanded piece was. Good eye catching this for ten bucks

    • Amanda Amanda on Aug 28, 2020

      Thank you! When I got it it was. Speckled brown. As I stripped it I discovered it was once painted white... then yellow... then brown!

  • Cav28349462 Cav28349462 on Oct 03, 2021

    Very nice! THANK YOU for saving a beautiful piece from another paint brush and returning it to its original wood grained glory!!

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