Refinishing an antique two drawer stand/dresser

Hey it's Monique here....recently I was contacted by a lady who had a very old two drawer nightstand/dresser she wanted repaired and refinished.  When we (husband in tow) arrived at her home, we got to see this gorgeous piece in person!  It's sad you can't find items like this anymore - may I reflect for a moment to when furniture was a craft, an artistic skill when each piece was created by hand and cherished for years to come - okay I'm done now....needless to say I come from a long line of wood lovers where we look at a piece of furniture, or wood of any kind and see such beauty in the grain of it.  Okay, I'm getting off track here....soooooo anyhow, this two drawer dresser.....it was stunning!  Here is a picture of the before.

I love the curves and small details this piece has, including those adorable Chippendale style drawer pulls!  Once we got the dresser home and started to look into it further, we discovered it was in pretty rough shape.  The back of the drawers were falling off and it was extremely wobbly.  The years of use and age was definitely showing.  The insides of the drawers were warped and falling apart, as you can see in this image.

I wish we could read what that old newspaper said on this drawer....could've given us some insight to the age!

This piece is just gorgeous!  Look at those curves!  Here we are looking it over and seeing what all needs to be done to it.

The dresser had to be re-nailed and completely secured.  My hubby is great with repair work - however he won't touch the painting or refinishing part of jobs...he says that part is left up to me.  I believe he is avoiding the most difficult part, don't you agree?

My husband used 1/4 inch alder plywood to replace the drawer bottoms.  It's nice to have the original drawer bottoms to use as a pattern to trace onto the new wood!

After the stand was completely secured and sanded, it was ready to refinish!  In this case, the customer wanted it painted black and lightly distressed, which was the perfect option since on the top of this dresser, it was cracked completely down the length of the top - about 1/4 inch wide!  We had to use an epoxy to fill the gap in this case.  Epoxy doesn't stain, so the paint choice was perfect!   Here is a picture of how large the crack was to repair; as  you can see, it was a significant crack.

Now after everything is repaired, sealed, and secured, it is sanded down to remove the old varnish.  We don't often take a piece down to the bare wood when we paint, however you never know what materials were used way back when, and sometimes that can react to the paint so in this case, we sanded it down for a blank canvas.

LOVE the curves on this piece - did I say that already??? 

I covered the metal details with painters tape and began the task at hand of painting it glossy black.  After it dried completely, it was time to distress it.  I chose to lightly distress it where you would normally see wear on a piece of furniture - the edges, legs, curves, drawer handle area, etc.  After distressing I sealed it with a good clear top coat and put back on the original drawer pulls.  Needless to say, the customer was thrilled, and I was wishing I could keep the piece for myself!