How to Turn an Ugly Duckling Into a Showgirl!

Jan's Garden Art
by Jan's Garden Art
7 Materials
$70
1 Day
Medium
I found this at a local fleamarket. Passed by it, but it called me back. Went to look at it and the price was $10. It was a heavy piece, I was by myself. Let me think on it I said. 5 minutes later I'm back with my $10.
See more of my projects at
https://www.facebook.com/JansGardenArt/
This was my Ugly Duckling.
She's in definite need of work.
The back of the piece. No idea what/why this was written.
Took the drawers out and carefully took them apart. It wasn't too hard as the glue was ages old.
There's a lock! Off to find someone who can make me a key!


 always wanted a piece that had a skeleton key.
I hand sanded the piece starting with coarse, then medium, then fine. While this process was going on - the duckling started to take shape. I was excited to learn that MinWax makes a water based stain that is tint-able (limited colors, but the key word is COLORS!!!!). So guess what I chose?
I applied the pre-stain (as directed) on the entire piece, then I started staining. I chose Marshmallow & Crimson for my colors as I have a Stawberry/Chicken themed kitchen I wanted to keep to those colors. I stained the entire drawer(s) and the side boxes Marshmallow. Took me 3 coats - but I got the look I wanted
1 Drawer stained & back together.
Time to start the Crimson! One coat looked gorgeous to me.
Checking it out, seeing how it looks. Time to seal it with Polycrylic & add the hardware!
I chose the Polycrylic as it dries CLEAR. Polyurethane (sp?) tends to dry with an amber sheen (yellowish). I did not want that - Polycrylic it is.
I was searching for a drawer pull - and found these Rooster knobs! They're PERFECT! (learning lesson for hardware - shop around - seriously. Cheapest price on Amazon for *1* of these drawer pulls was around $20. I got them both (with shipping) for less than $10. )
I found the escutcheon (that's it's name!!! It's the decorative cover over a keyhole) which was a learning process. Do you know how hard it is to find something you don't know the proper name of? Now if I could only find a site that detailed the names of the parts of furniture.
Anywhoo....On I went to completing this.
I did decide to "frame" out the side boxes to make them "pop" a bit more.
There she is singing her egg song loud and proud!
Suggested materials:
  • MinWax Water Based Pre-stain Wood Conditioner
  • Minwax Water Based Wood Stain (Crimson)
  • Minwax Water Based Wood Stain (Marshmallow)
See all materials
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  1 question
  • 62q10370829 62q10370829 on Mar 02, 2018

    Love the color on main part. Is it a filing cabnit? I mixed your color with walnut to get a darker reddish color. For my dinning room table to go with my home made one of kind hutch.

Comments
Join the conversation
6 of 7 comments
Next