40's Duchess Gets an Upgrade

by Toni Hunton

This is the very first piece that I brought,scored it for $45 off the local buy/sell page through Face Book.
I had no idea how to restore it,so it has been sitting in the garage now for 3 months with me totally ignoring it.
Then about a month ago,I sold a loveseat that I had,and the man wanted to know what else I had,so showed him all the pieces I had put up for restoration,and he saw this ole gal.
He asked if he could bring his 14 year old daughter by to see it,and later that day,she came and fell in love with it.
Grey she says........I want it painted grey.
Oh boy.

40 s duchess gets an upgrade, bedroom ideas, diy, woodworking projects

I started by removing the doors on either side,taking out all the drawers.....10 in total.....2 of which were broken,removed all the handles,again 2 were broken,then set about trying to remove the old varnish with my heat gun.

When this didn't work,I got out my brand new Orbital sander and using 120 paper,took her all the way back to the original wood.

This thing also has a giant mirror that sits in the middle and 2 wing back mirrors on either side,it is a monster for sure.

You can see the nice old handles in this picture,the client was adamant that those have to stay as the house they are in is 50's art deco through out,so she wants it to match.

Here is what the doors looked like before and after.

I was quite shocked at how pretty the wood underneath was,and there were only a few spots that needed filler.

Considering the age,it really was in great shape.

Here are the drawers as well.

I can not find the picture of the cabinet,but you get the idea.

Both of these drawers were coming apart,so they got some wood glue on them at the dove tails and sat for 2 days to cure up.

I then sanded them one more time to get rid of an excess glue.

This is the large middle mirror,well the back of it anyway.

It has been painted in a light grey.

I could not get the screws out of the hardware that holds the mirrors in place,they were too old,so had to paint around the hardware and mirrors edges.

A small amount of paint got on both which I simply scraped off with a razor knife.

The wing mirrors,side view.

Here are the doors,middle drawers and mirror posts getting a sun tan.

They all got a base in light grey,then were all finished in a dark grey that I mixed up.

The cabinet itself,got done in the light grey and the pedestal was finished with 2 coats of the darker grey.

On the drawers and rear edging piece,I added a design as it was looking too drab,and I learned a neat trick in the process.

I found something I liked on google under scroll art images,printed it off,then tried to sorta duplicate it on the pieces you now see.

I only had a white chalk pen at the time ,so began with this,and once I decided I hated it,I tried to wipe it off,and it gave me this effect of being a light shade of grey.

Pretty darn cool I think,and it was an accident !!!

I left the small drawers brown and did not paint them at all,I also did the same with the inside door panels.

Remember that pillowcase she showed me?????

Grey,grey,white and brown.

The last thing I did was add a redwood stain to the top of each cabinet section,but left the middle the light grey.

I put the stain on using a foam brush then wiped it back.

I am not totally proud of this one,but I think it looks okay,and in the end it is only the young lady who's opinion matters.

Once they take it home and set it all up,I will get pictures to post.

No point in doing that as it has to be delivered yet.

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1 question

Pacificapj on May 16, 2016
Did you have to re-silver the mirrors? How come there is no completed picture with the mirrors attached?

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Cuc3307017 on May 16, 2016
Beautiful and lots of work!

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- Toni Hunton on May 16, 2016
  @Cucucrafts yes it was,but I don't mind,the young lady loves it,and in the end,that is all that matters.
  
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Toni Hunton on May 17, 2016
Woo Hoo,got the picture with the mirrors on

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