Saturday, November 8, 2014

French Provincial Highboy



This is a continuation of my previous post, Eighteen Drawers of Misery, the French Provincial dresser/nightstand set. My client who purchased this set located a highboy that was an exact match to her set. When I quoted her the custom order paint job, she told me that the advertisement stated that it was in excellent condition.


She was so excited to bring me the dresser - but my face fell when I saw this piece and inspected it. Although it appears from this picture to be in good condition, upon closer inspection it was a mess! There were burns on the top and one side of the dresser had a huge gouge on the side, as if a door had opened and closed against it for twenty years.

 The drawers were a nightmare as well. Every one of the dovetail joints were loose - and the bottom drawer didn't even function. This was a good drawer!


I spent a full week on just the prep alone. Each drawer had to be glued and clamped to tighten the loose dovetails. The wooden track for the bottom drawer was cracked and had to be glued and tightened. I had to rebuild one side of the dresser with epoxy wood filler and sand that down. The entire surface was lightly sanded as well, with particular attention to the nicks on the feet and corners.

I learned an important lesson with sticky drawers from the long dresser and nightstands, so I took pictures with the drawers in so I would know where I needed to paint and how much of a gap there was between the openings. And most importantly, I numbered the drawers!



Once the prep was done, I could finally get to the good stuff! Two coats of water-based primer, sanding in between coats. And about three coats of General Finishes Snow White. I watered down the final coat slightly to minimize brush strokes.




This was definitely a labor of love - a lot of work but so worth it to see how appreciative and excited my sweet client was when she picked it up!

I've been really busy with some really new exciting pieces - a Mid Century Modern desk that I refinished and restained, a Campaign chest, a whole vintage bedroom suite and a French Provincial small chest! I need a bigger garage (and a nap)!

Have a wonderful week!



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15 comments:

  1. Your pieces turned out beautiful-sounds like a lot of work!

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    1. Thanks, Darrielle! They were a lot of work - but they went to a great home so it was totally worth the labor of love! xoxo

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  2. Goodness gracious, that's a beauty. I'm wishing it were mine. How poised and lovely. XOXO

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  3. I love the choice of white! Perfection! Thanks for sharing! I think it would be great for my new linky party starting this Saturday at 8pm called “Found & Foraged” Can’t wait to party with you at http://www.houseofhipsters.com

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    1. Thanks for the invite! I'll definitely be heading on over!

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    1. Thanks, Martina! It was a lot of work to get this finish...but so worth the end results!

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  5. This is really beautiful. I can't believe all you had to do to repair it, but it was worth it to have such a pretty piece. My #1 rule when buying vintage is the drawers have to work. Otherwise, it's too hard to fix! Great job and thanks so much for linking up to Found & Foraged!

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    1. Thanks so much for the compliment and my pleasure to link up to your new party!

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  6. Laura, Kyla and I are so happy you stopped by to share this lovely at our party. Hope to see you next week at the Found & Foraged Linky Party (Saturday @ 8PM CST) through one of our blogs!

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  7. Such a beautiful piece! Thanks so much for sharing at AMAZE ME MONDAY...
    Blessings,
    Cindy

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    1. Thanks so much, Cindy! It was my pleasure to share at your party! And BTW your kitchen is turning out GORGEOUS! :)

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  8. This dresser turned out great! Thank you so much for linking up at Found & Foraged! Pinned! Hope to see you again Saturday night at 8PM!

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