vintage modern dresser
repurposed dresser now serves up holiday hors d'œuvres and desserts as a buffet
I really love the clean lines of vintage modern furniture. I bought this old dresser a long time ago for twenty-five dollars. It had it's share of problems. The top was marred and stained. It appeared as if some fingernail polish had been spilled on it at one point. Black water rings from sweating glasses didn't bnother me … I was thinking twenty-five dollars was a good price for just about any dresser.
Long story short. Aside from the top it was in good enough shape to be useful and I did use it for a few years. But unfortunately it was too long to use in the last two houses I lived in, which spanned a nineteen year time period. I stored it and for 14 of those years it was covered in sawdust and spiderwebs in a dank unfinished basement. Fast forward to 2007 and I'm needing a buffet for the dining room of the mid-sixties ranch house I just moved into. Glad I saved this old thing, but by now it needed alot of work as the top sustained some pretty bad moisture damage.
I cleaned it up best I could. I scraped it down with cabinet scrapers. I drenched the top in oxalic acid to nuetralize the black stains on the top. I rubbed leather rejuvenator on the leather-faced doors. Then I gave it a couple coats of polyurethane stain and finish in one. That stuff did a good job of hiding alot of the nastier damage. Some new cabinet pulls from Menard's and I was in business.
