dresser Archives - Revive. Refresh. Restore. Lakeside Restoration

Liming Finish on Rough Antique Pine Dresser

May 29, 2020Posted in before and after, dresser, Furniture, FusionTagged antique, beachy, before and after, coastal, color, dresser, farmhouse, furniture store, refresh, restore, rustic, tallboy, upcycle, vintage1 Comment

I’d been itching to use Fusion’s White Stain & Finishing Oil as a Liming finish, and when I came across this previously stripped antique yellow pine dresser, I knew I had found the perfect piece! The previous owners had it professionally “dipped” to strip off the existing paint with every intention of refinishing it. That’s a familiar prelude for many of us! After years of sitting and moving from residence to residence, they finally needed it out of the way. By then, it was quite musty, battered, and generally “rough”. A liming finish would seal and protect it, but also highlight it’s character rather than try to mask it.

The overall construction was fantastic, but definitely “rustic”.

Fusion’s Stain and Finishing Oil (SFO) is a penetrating oil stain that soaks into the grain, in addition to an oil-based topcoat to seal and protect. Stain and Sealing in One step!

To use SFO on raw wood, I simply brushed it on, let it penetrate the wood for a few minutes, and then wiped back the excess. Below you can see the process and half of the drawer wiped back with one coat. I decided this was still too yellow, so I simply waited a day for it to dry, and then applied a second coat – brush on/wipe off.

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Below, you can see the difference one coat makes on the drawer front and the dresser top.

Now for that musty smell…every single interior surface got a generous shellacking! Shellac is the only surefire way to seal smells away from your belongings. The important part about sealing musty dressers is to brush or spray shellac on the underside, interior, exterior of each drawer (every side but the front) in order to completely trap odors away. The interior body of the dresser should also be sprayed or brushed because it can also trap smells.

Here is the finished piece after it’s second coat. It was That Simple! One step Stain & Finishing Oil and a bit of shellac! It was a great way to update and bring out some of the details while preserving the character of this piece.

This piece found its new home quite a while ago, but we have more unique refinished pieces available on our Facebook page Furniture Albums and our Online Store

Fusion’s Stain & Finishing Oil comes in a variety of stains to highlight and show off your wood grain. SFO Colors

1920’s Dressers – So Versatile!

December 10, 2019September 18, 2023Posted in 1920, before and after, dresser, Furniture, Fusion, homestead house, MilkpaintTagged 1920, antique, dresser, farmhouse, lakeside restoration, messy workshop, mirror, recycle, recycle furinure, refresh, restore, revive, rustic, upcycle, vintage mattersLeave a comment

The Before

This is one of my favorite styles of furniture to work with; well made, lots of storage, easy to repair and open to any style of finish from traditional to rustic. These pieces of furniture can be used in just about every room in the house too. A server in the dining room, entryway storage, bathroom vanity, and of course, for clothing or winter blanket storage in a bedroom.

This particular dresser is Enormous (50 inches wide!). It had definitely seen better days. Although the wood veneer was beautifully grained, there were lots of scratches, a few gouges, several spillage or burn marks, and a few other hard-use scars that would require complete stripping and thorough sanding to bring back to beautiful wood – with no guarantees that all that work would save the deepest of the stained areas. Not to mention, sanding something this size is an outdoor job; but not during the winter in Upstate NY.

The Top

With the level of discoloration on the top, I opted to use FUSION’s Double Espresso Gel Stain, which is a nearly opaque, tinted polyurethane. It leaves a nice, durable wood finish while blending in some of the color variations. While it isn’t necessary to sand before applying, I hand-sanded as many of the stains out of the top as I could for a more uniform final finish.

image_b59f8eae-dbf8-4dfd-bc58-5c640c4ae941.img_9485 — BEFORE

image_db8b433a-e165-4df4-9fe7-c21e327e7096.img_9494 — AFTER Gel Stain

The Body

Homestead House Milkpaint carries a line of historic colors that look fantastic on antique pieces. The finish can also be very rustic and chippy, which gives an authentic modern farmhouse look without having to deal with furniture originally painted with dangerous, lead-based paint. I love blues, and have been wanting to try Rideau Blue on a large piece! Keep in mind, authentic milk-paint must be in powdered form. If it comes pre-mixed as a liquid then it is not actual milkpaint and contains all sorts of other fillers that are not part of historic, authentic milkpaint; this is often referred to as “simulated” milkpaint – and it won’t perform nearly as well as the real deal from Homestead House or Miss Mustard Seed.

Rideau Blue is a beautiful blue with grey tones.

Authentic milkpaint comes in a powder form that you mix with water. Anything pre-mixed is not actual milk-paint, and usually cotains latex and other chemical fillers..

Milkpaint fun!

One of the fun things about using milkpaint without adding a binder, is that it will perform uniquely and chip where it wants to in a natural, authentic way. It can also be used as a more solid finish by adding an acrylic bonding agent, however I like to see how it’s going to go on it’s own first.

After it dries, a light sanding reveals where the paint would like to stay and where it would like to randomly chip off. Application of a little FUSION hemp oil brings out the true depth of milkpaint color and enhances the chipped areas beautifully!If you haven’t yet tried painting with milkpaint, it’s a must-try! It is capable of such a variety of finishes; a solid stain on raw wood, a solid rustic finish using binder, and a chippy farmhouse look – it’s so much fun! Lakeside Restoration and Vintage Matters will be offering milkpaint workshops in February, so keep an eye out on the events page on Facebook for your chance to play www.lakesiderestoration.net

image_73a8078a-1c84-49c3-9969-69e1717c8c52.img_9537 — After applying Hemp Oil on the Left; Before applying hemp oil on the Right. You can see how it deepens the color a bit and enhances the chipped areas.

image_fc73a547-07d7-40e4-8a24-87e18f6e98c7.img_9557 — Just a few minor repairs along the way to make sure the drawers are working well!

image_178e23e0-955d-4a0f-81e2-f04bb6f40f55.img_9559 — It’s starting to come together!

image_fe32c106-9733-45f3-8ecb-667ab70bc682.img_9562 — Oh, yes….the GIGANTIC mirror! I tweeked my back hefting this one in to place. But look at how nicely the mirror finishes off the piece!

image_aaa46dc5-e307-4fe1-8331-ad5d9ec6bf05.img_9570 — LOVE THIS!!!

After a thorough cleaning, the drawer interiors were in pretty nice shape for the age of this piece. I opted to re-hydrate them and polish the interior finish using FUSION’s new Lavender scented furniture wax. Not only does this wax brighten up and seal the wood, but it also smells incredible!!!

All of the products used to refinish this dresser are available at our shops, Vintage Matters at 7060 Ridge Road Sodus, NY and Lakeside Restoration 1833 Monroe Ave Rochester, NY – or at our online store at https://lakeside-restoration.myshopify.com/

image_8ce441c3-d169-40b5-9c59-442e66c3b986.img_9608 — FINISHED!!

Revive. Refresh. Restore. Lakeside Restoration.

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These Are A Few of My Favorite Things; Missing Veneer, Broken Handles, Mysteriously Absent Trim

December 3, 2019February 6, 2023Posted in before and after, dresser, Furniture, Fusion, paint brushes, Staalmeester, UncategorizedTagged antique, before and after, coastal, dresser, furniture store, midnight blue, nautical, painted furniture, recycle, refresh, restore, revive, tallboy, upcycle, vintage3 Comments

This project is True to our Mantra:

Revive. Refresh. Restore.

BEFORE

This duo was on it’s last stop before the trash heap, so despite having no room … they came home with me. After further inspection, most of the parts were contained in the drawers, and the interior was in great shape! Bonus!!

Transformation

Whenever someone suggests that simply slapping paint on wood shouldn’t take too much skill or time…. I recall how every clamp in my shop was doing double duty for weeks splicing these dressers back together. And did you ever notice how a dresser seems to triple the space it occupies once you remove the drawers? Then comes the washing (inside and out) dewaxing (yes, that is an invented word), and lightly sanding wood filler and years of blemishes. Each drawer interior then gets cleaned and sealed, often with hemp oil for an invisible finish that freshens up the interior wood to look like new.

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Midnight Blue to the Rescue

One of my all-time favorite FUSION Mineral Paint colors, Midnight Blue is the perfect Little Black Dress for just about any piece of furniture. To obtain a smooth finish, I used a microfiber roller and a handmade Staalmeester Ultimate One brush for the Perfect Finish! I highly recommend the Staalmeester Ultimate brushes; with the caveat that you may never be able to go back to using a ‘common’ brush.

Tip Top

I’m partial to the look of real wood on the top of my dresser, so after piecing veneer back into place (the ultimate puzzle!) and patching some spots on the tops, I used the subtle opacity of FUSION’s new Double Espresso Gel Stain to camouflage the repairs while providing a durable wood finish. This product is great – especially for a piece that may not take well to sanding off the old finish to raw wood due to the veneer’s fragility.

AFTER

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Capturing the true color is challenging in my space, I’ll keep trying to get a good glamour shot – but the After is definitely an improvement, even with substandard lighting. Along the way there was a brief trip to Rochester’s ReHouse Architectural Salvage to secure a single matching handle to replace a missing piece….that place is a life saver!!!

All of the products and tools used on this project are available for purchase (along with how-to instructions) at our shops on Monroe Ave in Brighton and Ridge Road in Sodus as well as at our online store;

https://lakeside-restoration.myshopify.com/

What projects have you painted in Midnight Blue? We would Love to see them – share them below!!

Coming Along…

August 1, 2017October 7, 2019Posted in before and after, Furniture, FusionTagged antique, before and after, dresser, furniture store, fusion mineral paint, glaze, raw silk, tallboyLeave a comment

These 2 dressers were made by Star Furniture Company from Jamestown, NY. The company went out of business in 1929 so these dressers were crafted sometime in the 1920’s.

Overall they were in decent shape, however there was some missing trim that needed to be replaced and some that was barely attached and needed to be secured. There was also a lot of wax on these pieces so abundant odorless mineral spirits were used and the pieces were given an all-over light sanding.

I applied one coat of FUSION Mineral Paint Concealer to build a base layer and then it only took 2 coats of Fusion Raw Silk (my all-time favorite neutral white) to complete coverage.

After that, I very lightly distressed a few strategic places with sandpaper to highlight a few of the details and then applied Fusion Antiquing Glaze to further enhance details.

Although Fusion has a built-in top coat and cures hard enough to handle lots of wear and tear, I tend to treat horizontal surfaces roughly and therefore assume others do too. So, I treated the top with a couple of coats of FUSION Tough Coat just to make sure stains and things will never mar the top of this piece.

Lastly, a little clear wax on the drawer edges to ensure continued smooth sliding and she was finished!

Before…

After!

Next comes the sister dresser with the attached mirror…

Provincial Dresser Makeover

April 30, 2017September 18, 2023Posted in French Provincial, Furniture, FusionTagged before and after, casement, coastal, dresser, farmhouse, french, furniture store, fusion mineral paint, little whale, nautical, painted furniture, provincial, restore, tallboy, upcycle, vintageLeave a comment

This dresser project has been many many many months long. She has actually been completed for some time now, but I hadn’t gotten around to taking her “After” pictures until just recently.

Here is where she started; A room full of project furniture…of course. Try to ignore the rest and focus on the tall, yellowish French Provincial dresser to the right of center.

She was so very tired looking but was a quality, solid wood piece and very well constructed. The whole set of provincial bedroom furniture came from the original owners so there were no loose joints or missing pieces to contend with.

We decided to upgrade my daughter’s dresser (which had been a roadside find) at our summer cottage and replace it with this one. There are also two matching twin head/footboards that will eventually go into her room once they are revived. The only problem was trying to fit the furniture style into the relaxed family cottage. I’m not fan of distressed shabby furniture, so this would be an interesting cognitive exercise for me.

I like natural wood accents on my painted furniture projects, so the first step was easy – strip the top and see what was under there! The sweet cherry wood under that factory paint finish was then stained and sealed. I painted the body of the dresser creamy white (FUSION Mineral Paint Casement) and struggled a bit with what to do with the details. Paint a darker cream to highlight the features? A deeply contrasting color? Leave it all white (my significant other liked that idea). How to make it fit into the cottage…

After a few false starts I finally used FUSION’s Little Whale from their Tones for Tots line. Turns out to be a very cottagy (is that a word…it is now) accent color.

A little taste of Before and After.

I really like the way this turned out! I had originally planned to paint the hardware a brushed steel color, but frankly we needed the dresser installed STAT! I had already passed along my daughter’s old dresser and her room was turning into one big pile of homeless clothes. So I put the original handles back on with plans to update the finish later (we all know how that works…). But I think the contrast has grown on me – I like them just the way they are. And I’m not just saying that because I think I’ll never get to the task of refinishing them. Really.

If you look closely, one of the updated provincial headboards is to the right of the dresser (painted in the same Little Whale blue) – but that will be for another blog post – and once the other bed is finished!