What do you do when you have quality furniture with sentimental value that just really isn’t your style? A customer came to me with exactly that situation, three pieces of Stanley furniture that was gorgeous in its day but was in need of a fresh update to be beautiful today.
We talked through ideas and possibilities for redesigning and decided on a Modern Farmhouse Restyle. The three pieces would be finished in a lightly distressed white with dark stained wood tops, and new hardware on all three pieces. The long dresser would be restyled so that the center door and three drawers could easily be removed in the future so that the piece could be used as a media center with a large TV. The side table needed to be restyled to be better used next to a bed, this required removing the double doors and adding a single drawer with open shelf space below. The tall chest of drawers would not be changed and only needed some minor repairs to a drawer and two drawer glides.
This was a large project that began with removing all hardware, cleaning with TSP, and filling the holes from the old hardware. All of the drawers and the three cabinet pieces were scuff sanded with 150 grit paper and sealed with a clear shellac primer to help prevent any bleed through in the white finish coat.
Setting aside the drawers, I focused on the tops that would be finished in a dark brown stain. They were a veneer so using 120 grit in my orbital sander I began to carefully remove the finish. Most of the finish was removed with sanding but I decided to use paint stripper to remove any remaining finish.
With all three pieces clean and dry, I stained the tops with Minwax Antique Walnut. This was an ‘uh oh’ moment as staining revealed heavy oil contamination to all three tops. I had to stop, and use mineral spirits to throughly clean all traces of oil so that the wood could absorb the stain. This was successful and after allowing time to dry, I restrained the tops and when dry, I finished the tops with two coats of GF HP Gloss and one coat of GF Flat.
Next, I focused on the redesign of the dresser. With all drawers temporarily removed I individually boxed in the center three drawer spaces to be used in the future as open shelves for media equipment.
The redesign of the end table began with removing the two doors and using them to make one drawer face for the new drawer that I was adding in the end table.
With both of these redesigns done I was ready to paint all three pieces and drawers with General Finishes Milk Paint in Alabaster. This paint does not require a top coat but because I had done some distressing/sanding to add an aged look to the pieces, I top coated with two coats of General Finishes Flat for additional durability.
The new hand forged hardware was just what it needed to finish this Modern Farmhouse Restyle.
