Vintage Redo

Remember the last post of this fantastic find from Queen of Hearts Antiques and Interiors? I finished it and it is fantastic I must say.

It was covered in rust and some paint splotches, which I was fine with. I like the old rusty look. However, the rust was getting on my hands when I touched it and messed with the drawers.

 

I took all of the drawers out. 99 of them to be exact, 10 rows of 10. I pulled out the crusty papers that were in some of them and started cleaning up the dirt and some of the rust. As I pulled drawers out to clean them I found some interesting things.

I found some jewelry molds from the 1930's. Most of them are unusable as they are dried out and not flexible anymore. But a fun find non-the-less.

I even found a jewelry key that had the date on it. Which is how I knew what era they come from.

Some of the drawers had some major damage from the rust. The rust had eaten away at some of the metal leaving "lesion" type marks over the entire front of some of the drawers. So I had to come up with a way to cover the bad damage without covering the entire piece in paint. What about a checkerboard pattern? I fell in love with the idea becasue it would be a reminder of my LOVE for Alice in Wonderland.

I didn't want to have to go buy more product to finish this piece. I am on a budget. So I went through the paint I had and decided to use the grey paint I used on the cubby bookshelf piece from my last post.
I sorted through the drawers to pulled the ones with the worst damage and dry brushed the paint on. After the paint dried I put a layer of sealant over every drawer and the shelving that houses the drawers.

Here it is finished and in place, in my almost finished studio. It was missing 1 drawer when I purchased it. Which is probably why I got such a great deal on it. I figure I could have a drawer made, find one in an antique shop, or make one out of wood myself and paint it to match. Either way this piece is fabulous and I just adore it. I will use it to hold all of my bits and bobs for my art and jewelry.

I am now one step closer to having my studio done. I have 2 more furniture pieces to finish and then I can unload all of my boxes and fill my little drawers and shelves.

In my next post I will show how I used gel stain to update a 1980s handmade hutch from a honey oak to an espresso finish.