You’re coming home with me!
I had the car at my disposal so I decided to hit my favourite second hand furniture shop. It had been quite a while and I took a peek at their selection online and it looked like there was a lot of good stuff available.
It’s a big store and since I am in need of storage furniture, I mainly just looked at the section where all the dresser, wardropes and bookcases are. The selection was amazing this time, I could have easily spend a couple thousand if I had it. I already had my eye on these two dressers and seeing them in person I knew they would come home with me.
I am not good at or like haggling but I did politely ask the clerk to make me a good deal if I take both dressers and have them delivered to my home. I don’t think you’ll believe me but the total with delivery was 340€! A fucking bargain for old solid wood furniture.
Honestly, I almost didn’t buy this one because I thought it looked too new. To me it looked like a reproduction but the inside and the back of the dresser show it’s not new, someone had just repaired it too damn well! To me it’s a bit too shiny and smooth, but I’m just gonna let it age on it’s own. The keys are missing and there are no pull handles so I do need to buy matching handles and then it’s good to go.
I have big plans for the white one, and I’m gonna have some fun with it. It’s a beautiful dresser with mostly cosmetic problems, a thick coat of cracking paint, two of the legs came off and some of the trims are loose. Nothing major but taking off all the paint and varnish from the decorative elements is quite a task. Luckily it’s exactly what I like to do!
I’m using a combination of techniques to take off all the paint; heat gun, scraping and paint remover. For the decorative element I have to use the paint remover but it’s such a bitch to get off. It gets all glooby and softens the wood underneath so it’s a little too easy to damage some of the edges.
Seeing that not only the drawers but also the carcass of the dresser is constructed using hand cut dovetails makes me irrationally happy! This is the reason why the dresser is still solid after maybe even 100 years, you just can’t beat that.
After two days I’ve gotten most of the paint and varnish off and soon I’ll get to the sanding part. Stay tuned to see what I end up doing to the dresser.
