Just a quick peek for you.

George bought a little antique dresser last week and very

excitedly arrived home with it in his van anxious to show me.

Looking at it in the back of the van, I have to admit

 I was perplexed because it looked nice as is.

 I had assumed it was for me to work on.

He knows my motto

"if its not broke dont fix it"

It had rich color in the wood, beautiful hardware

 but once I get closer I realized how short it was,

 at about 27". We have been looking for a special

 piece for ourselves to fit along a low window.

Now this started to make sense, however it also has

 to be very shallow which this was not at 20" deep.

NOT GONNA WORK FOR US

i love you george

 I have been toying with the idea of turquoise

 and now I have to come up with a plan to refurbish

 the thing.  Of course the first thing was

 to put some casters back on it to give it a bit more

 stature. Then George shows me some repairs that it

 needed. The insides of the cabinet and drawers

 definitely would benefit from attention. The top

 surface varnish was bubbled all over.

Okay this is sounding better, I like to be needed.

But I didnt have a clear vision and it was sitting in the middle of my work space and something

had to happen. The top couldnt be painted without being stripped.

If I have to strip it I want to stain it dark walnut. Thats a start! That will go with turquoise.

So I removed the top to take outside to do the dirty work.

When removing it I found something, half a post card stuck

 between the frame and the top.

Addresser was:

Mr David Brown

1256 Davie St.

Vancouver BC

It reads "arrived at _____ johston. He is a big boy,

 was asking for you. The picture on this card is the

 hotel I stayed at in NY"

signed: "Father"

 See the post mark?

 1919

Okay now back to the dresser

 Trial and Error ....

I finally ended with something I adore ... 

Let me know what you think ....

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BUFFED BUFFET black and faux seal antique buffet

The veneer was cracked, lifting, and missing on the

 top surface of this old buffet when we got it.

It was also in its original brown stained finish.

*Sorry no before pictures* 

The mirror was purchased at a local antique store,

 and was the perfect size to match up with the buffet.

It was gold and the elaborate decorations were

 chipped and broken.

*Sorry no before photos*

I had removed all the veneer on the top of the buffet

 a year earlier but the gouges and missing wood was

 just not going to match with the sleek black look I

 was now wanting.

The day I was working on the top I had gotten

 interrupted by the cable man come to rewire some

 connections, and really that was the main cause for

 the end result of what you see in these photos.

It was one of those trial and error projects.

In a moment of surprise this faux seal skin look magically

appeared on the top. Some have compared it to marble.  

Im going to explain how the top was finished in point form in the hopes it is easier to follow:

1. I filled the gouges with white wood filler
2. then painted it black
3. next spray painted with metallic silver
4. then belt sanded the whole surface
5. 6 layers of clear coat

I had started spraying the metallic silver on the top

 over the black thinking if I dont like it the acetone

 is right handy to wipe it off. I had forgotten about

 the cable man coming and when he arrived in the

 middle of this process I had to walk away without

 seeing what it looked like. Well once he was done

 the paint was also now dryish. I hated it! It looked

 tacky! In my anger I grabbed the belt sander with a

 35 grit belt (very coarse) and started trying to

 remove everything. This is when this beautiful

 finish started to come thru. 

You can find more piece finished in black here.

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