Erik’s most recent restoration project was this 9-drawer, mid-century modern dresser of unknown origin.
We’re always a little frustrated by piece of furniture that don’t identify themselves. Normally, the manufacturer puts a brand or label in one of the upper drawers. Not so with this piece, so we can’t figure out who designed or manufacturer it.
Still, it makes for a lovely, mid-century dresser with lots of room. It measures 60 1/4″ wide x 17 1/2″ deep x 30 1/2″ high.
When we picked it up, the dresser was in rough shape, with very wobbly legs. Erik has created reinforcement pieces for the bottom sides. He also inserted a new board on the lower bottom, between the legs, salvaging the trim piece from the old board so that the design of the dresser would remain intact. With these fixes, the dresser is now sturdy. No more leg wobble.
Side view of 9-drawer mid-century modern dresser. The piece of wood between the legs was added by Erik to stabilize the structure. May 2018.9-drawer mid-century modern dresser, view of new piece of wood with salvaged trim on the front bottom (between the legs). May 2018.
Garrison Hutch (glass inserted), restored April 2018.
We’ve handled Garrison hutches in several sizes before at Erik G. Warner Decorative Salvage. This one is one of the wider hutches.
For a person who needs a fashionable cabinet that allows for both hidden storage and storage to showcase special items, this piece fits the bill. Erik has fully refinished this hutch, reinforcing the legs and subframe in order to give it more stability.
It measures 48″ wide x 15″ deep x 68″ high.
This Garrison hutch is available for purchase at MidModMen+friends. Stop by the store to check it out.
Note: This item has SOLD.
Garrison hutch, glass doors removed to provide clearer view of upper shelves, April 2018.
If you’re a knitter and you’ve been knitting from patterns for any length of time, you will have run across the advice to knit a test swatch using the yarn and needles intended for your particular project. I cringe at the thought of making test swatches because they feel like a waste of time. Let me get to work on the actual thing I want to make, please!
Usually I bypass the swatch and jump right into the project. When I’m finished, I am often annoyed to find that my piece is not the size I hoped it would be. Usually, it is too big. That’s the value of a test swatch in knitting. If I would do them, I would know whether I needed to adjust my needles in order to get the proper gauge.
Now that Erik has been seriously refinishing furniture for the past 5+ years, he has come around to learning the value of test swatches in refinishing.
As I’ve watched his process evolve, I’m amazed at how many variables there are to consider in refinishing a piece of mid-century modern furniture. Here are some of the variables he has to contend with:
Type of wood – Some woods, like walnut, take stain evenly; others, like birch, don’t and will turn out blotchy if not dealt with properly.
The stain – Color is a big part of this, but so are the composition (gel vs. dye vs. pigmented vs. wiping & etc.) and brand of stain.
How finely a piece is sanded – If coarse-grit sandpaper is used before staining, more pigment will lodge into the wood and the stain will appear darker.
The various protective coats – There are usually several layers of protective coats on a given piece. These can include shellac, de-waxed shellac, lacquer, polyurethane (known as “Poly” in the business), vinyl sealer, conversion varnish, and curing oils. The lacquer can be nitrocellulose, pre-catalyzed lacquer, post-catalyzed lacquer, or water-based.
The condition a piece is in – If an old piece of furniture has been impregnated with a silicone furniture polish over time, this will contaminate a new finish if it is not properly sealed in. If it has been water-damaged, this damage has to be treated so that a shadow of it doesn’t reappear after the piece has been refinished. If a piece has faded due to sun damage, this will also affect the final outcome.
As you can see, refinishing a piece of furniture is not a simple matter of slapping on a new finish coat.
Erik Warner’s refinishing test swatches, May 2017.
Because of all these variables (and more!) and the time it takes Erik to strip and sand a piece to bare wood, he has become a fan of test swatches. This is especially true when he’s trying a new finishing technique. He doesn’t want to get to the end of a project and find he doesn’t like the result. That would mean restripping the entire piece over again.
To create a test swatch, he finds a scrap piece of wood that is the same or similar to the furniture he is working on and tries a few finishing techniques on it, marking each trial with the variables so he can remember how to recreate the finish he prefers on the furniture.
Notes on Erik Warner’s test swatches, May 2017.
The final result from the middle test swatches in the above photos is the finish on these matching lounge chairs:
Lounge chairs refinished by Erik Warner, May 2017.
