Eclectic Gray, Walnut & Gold Dresser

I'm not sure what to call this style? I think the knobs give it an Art Deco feel, but not sure, so I'm calling it Eclectic.
All I know is that I love the lines and told my husband "get it" when he found it during a lunch break at local thrift store.
I was MOST excited about that amazing dresser top and my plan was to strip and refinish it because it had a bubble/burn mark in the topcoat. I spent several days carefully stripping the finish before I felt it was ready to sand. I started with 220 and it burned right the "veneer" because it was made of PAPER! I was frustrated, and obviously had to change gears because Plan A failed.
I don't have a picture of the stripped paper veneer top, but I do have a picture of another time waster. I accidentally forgot the bottom two drawers just outside my garage door after they were primed and ready for paint. I left them overnight and while it didn't rain, the condensation did irreparable damage. The veneer wasn't anything special or exotic, so my plan was to paint it all along, but in order to do so, I now had to strip the old veneer. I did this with a wet towel and a heat gun. I only have a short video clip of this process - so nothing to share here other than the aftermath. It was bad.


I filled no less than 3x with Bondo and eventually decided it was good enough to move on.
When filling with bondo, I power sand after it dries and between coats of primer.
I primed the two bottom drawer fronts and started the process of painting the frame black - which was my Plan B.
Well, that didn't work out either. I painted it and tried to rub it out to perfect the high gloss finish -and as you could see, I couldn't get the gloss to come back (I needed new supplies). I was out of the black paint and didn't want to buy more, so I moved on to Plan C.
I wanted to work with in-stock product, so I mixed general finishes Snow White and Lamp Black about 50/50 for a nice grey. I sprayed the frame and two drawers. I should mention that I planned to keep the top drawer in walnut all along because that drawer had real, beautiful veneer. I finished that quickly and it sat in storage while I dealt with all my other mistakes.
The knobs went through several paint jobs before I finally settled on Rustoleum's metallic gold (knobs are wood).
I tried to style it for someone with eclectic taste because I wasn't sure what type of buyer this would appeal to.
I do love this way this makeover photographed. A little different than my usual.....
thanks for reading! As always, details and information about my processes can be found on my blog.
Phoenix Restoration
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