Graphite and Gold Antique Dresser Makeover

This vintage dresser was a Craigslist find! It was pretty worn out, and needed several structural repairs, but I had to have it! The lady that I bought it from said it belonged to her grandparents, who received it in the 1940s as a wedding gift (I can't believe she parted with it, but it was my lucky day!!)  

First up was to repair the front right foot. It was broken and being held together by electrical tape when I got it! I used "Titebond hide glue" to first glue the pieces back on, fortunately they fit right back together and weren't missing any chunks. After gluing and clamping it tightly overnight, I used a tight fitting wooden dowel to put in the center to the foot where there used to be a caster wheel and filled it with wood epoxy.

After the repair work was finished, I carefully sanded down the wood veneer on top and stained it using General Finishes Java Gel stain with only one coat so that it wasn't too dark.

before                       during                            after
What a difference!

Then, I painted the base and mirror in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint "Graphite", distressed around all of the details, and made a glaze from Modern Masters metallic paint in "Champagne gold". I used the glaze on the raised details and hardware to bring out all of the details.
I finished her off with a few coats of clear satin polyacrylic to protect the new finish and she was all done- many painstaking hours later!

This beauty was on sale all of about a week before she sold....just as I'd almost decided I should keep her! It was a bittersweet parting, but I'm glad that all of my hard work paid off!