Over a month ago we found this gorgeous mid-century (aka 1950's/vintage/or just plain old) dresser at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I fell in love with it instantly. After doing some serious googling, I decided that the mid-century modern style is absolutely fabulous, and finding this dresser at the ReStore when I never find anything good there was a sign that I should look towards the past more often.
 |
| Mid-Century Modern Dresser |
We didn't plan on doing a lot to it. Sanding, new stain, new hardware & replacing two of the drawers with a shelf. We loved the legs on it. I think the vintage look to the legs gives it a lot of charm. Picking new hardware was easy. We wanted to replaced the ugly brass with something sleek, stainless & modern. Putting the new hardware on was challenging because of the placement of the old stuff. I'm not sure if you can really tell in the picture, but the hardware placement is staggered... definitely not the look we wanted, and the new hardware wouldn't cover it. So Graham found some similar wood and made plugs to put where the holes were.
This worked really well. Once he sanded them down, they were barely noticeable, and even now I couldn't find them until I actually looked for them.
But finally it was smooth & finished, and we were ready to choose a stain. We ended up combining Minwax Red Mahogany & Dark Walnut to get the color that was closest to what we wanted. Being completely honest, I wanted to go darker, but Graham wanted the pretty grain of the wood to show through. I'm glad he convinced me, because I love the richness & warmth of the color we went with.
He stained it, put a few coats of polyurethane on it, and then went to Virginia for a few days, so I was forced to wait.
And re-evaluate our hardware selection. The one we picked out initially was small. And I thought something a little more substantial would look better.
Anyways, Graham got home late Tuesday night, and when I got home from work yesterday I came home to this. It's absolutely beautiful! We spent the night curled up on the couch continuing Graham's X-Files education. During an episode I don't really care for, I swear I spent more time admiring our newest piece of furniture than I did watching Mulder become entranced by a vampire.
The dresser has always been a great piece. But I think as an entertainment center, it's absolutely perfect in our home. I love the color. I love the warmth and richness of it in a room full of dark & cool colors. I love the height (it's significantly higher than our old one). I love the drawers that keep all of our stuff hidden. I just absolutely love it.
