When we first started refinishing wood furniture, we went a little overboard. We collected all the wood furniture we could find, even if it needed a lot of TLC. Our garage quickly filled up and our sweet little munchkins had to climb over and around furniture just to get their bikes out! This waterfall dresser was one of those pieces that sat around for a while.
The before
I personally love those 1930 -1940 art deco inspired lines. Although Stuart didn’t really see the potential, happy wife – happy life. We bought it for $20. I’m sorry to say it languished away in our garage for many months. It wasn’t until my sister was over recently and sharing with us her excitement for her new place that we remembered it and thought it could be perfect for her.
BEFORE: Definitely needs some love.
My sister is a talented actress who has recently been called to the public service and the fight against social injustice. She is creative and passionate, with a flair for vintage things.
In progress
We wanted to preserve as much original wood veneer as we could. But because the veneer was damaged in places we knew it would need wood filler and paint on some parts. You can read about how to repair wood veneer here. It is possible to replace and restore wood veneer, but since my sister likes the updated painted look anyways, we thought we’d work with what we had.
We carefully sanded down the wood veneer on the top, the inlay design on the top drawer and the bottom decorative piece. Since the veneer on waterfall dressers is often thin, we were careful not to sand down to the layer below. We applied a dark espresso stain with a foam brush to all three areas. As expected, the bottom piece which was not veneer but solid wood, took the stain very differently from the veneer. We decided it would never quite match the stain of the veneer and we’d paint it instead.
To keep the piece light and fresh we opted for Benjamin Moore’s cloud white paint for the body and drawers of this waterfall dresser makeover. Even with our trusty Zinsser primer, it took 3 coats to get the coverage we wanted. You can read more about the process we use to achieve a near perfect finish here.
My sister didn’t like the bakelite bits on the original hardware. Luckily, these popped off easily from the metal pulls. We cleaned up the metal pulls and were able to use them again. The pretty goldish tone really pops against the white. For durability, we finished off this waterfall dresser makeover with two coats of polycrylic spray.
These handles were definitely unique!
The after
The final piece turned out just liked we hoped and suits its new owner perfectly! Like my sister, it is bold, classic and one-of-a-kind. Can you think of a better house warming gift? We’d love to know what you think of this furniture flip. If you’ve got a moment, please drop us a line in the comment section below.
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