This is a FURNITURE CRIME...

thank you bespoke post for sponsoring this video at first glance this is an ordinary dresser but this one has a unique story to tell my name is barry welcome to mad city modern whenever i go to the thrift store there's usually at least one piece of furniture that stands out among the rest this vintage dresser had a green glaze and mismatched hardware i purchased it for fifty dollars and i found this brass koi fish in the same store if you were to look at a map of wisconsin you would find chicago illinois here madison wisconsin here and about 100 miles from madison is a small town by the name of new london wisconsin not far from there is the canadian border new london is a town with a population of a little over 7 000 people and it was once home to a furniture manufacturing company owned by a man who was never really known well for his furniture manufacturing in 1917 this man purchased the already existing furniture factory in new london wisconsin primarily to build cabinets for his invention from 1877. even that invention from 1877 isn't what he's best known for today his name was thomas and the furniture factory was thomas edison furniture factory where they would eventually build edison little folks furniture you may have heard the name thomas alva edison today i'll restore this chest of drawers from the edison little folks furniture because this was a lengthy project i decided for this video that instead of narrating i would just share several short clips of the techniques i used for removing the old finishes this would include several methods of scraping and sanding i will link all the products that i'm using in the video description when i show the original ad for this furniture you'll see that this hardware is probably not original to this piece the original drawer pulls were likely long wooden handles so i won't be making much of an effort to find the two missing drawer pulls i recently posted a photo of this dresser on my youtube community page and several of you were able to help me identify this piece one person even sent this ad and i noticed not only the dresser but also a chef robe that i recently refinished or at least one similar and i'll read this ad it was very common for these pieces to be painted so as i'm removing the paint on this dresser and i ask in the thumbnail who did this perhaps the wendy's green color that's in the ad who knows maybe thomas edison painted this dresser [Music] the furniture ad reads as follows one of the outstanding favorites of those who desire attractiveness as well as safety comfort and convenience the bow foot end and the new third dimensional decorations have unusual appeal the decorative balls are finished in delicate pastel colors finished in maple waxed birch white pink blue silver gray tulip yellow salmon gray and wendy green on this dresser i'll test both layers of paint for lead [Music] [Music] i'll place the hardware in vinegar to soak while i'm working on removing the paint and with each project it's different regarding how much i decide to scrape and how much i use the paint stripper there's about an equal balance for this project [Music] without the support from viewers and sponsors i wouldn't be able to continue creating content like this so for this week's sponsored video i've hidden this brass spider see if you can find it good luck bespoke post is a monthly membership club and they deliver awesome boxes of top shelf goods from under the radar brands it's free to join and every month they introduce their members to cool new products including outdoor gear bar ware home and kitchen goods clothing and even more this is based on a preference quiz that members fill out when they sign up and the box lineup changes every month so each box has around 70 in value but you only pay a fraction of that price [Music] the great part is you only pay for what you want so you'll get a box assigned to each month based on the quiz you take when you sign up and before the item is shipped you'll get a preview of what comes inside the box if you decide you like it then you keep it if you want to swap it out for a different box you can do that or you just skip the month entirely for absolutely no charge you only pay for what you want plus the box lineup changes every month [Music] so to get 20 off your first box click the link in the description and enter city modern 20 at checkout or go to bespokepost.com citymodern20 now back to the video every furniture project will have its own unique challenges and so i like to work through all the different methods for removing the old finishes that includes the paint stripper the detailed scraper sets carbide scrapers cabinet scrapers or card scrapers and sometimes the dental kit don't be discouraged if something doesn't work just move on to the next and do the best you can [Music] [Music] one of the most difficult parts of refinishing or restoring vintage furniture is replacing the original hardware if it is missing in this case i have something close that will work for now but i'm continuing to shop online and at thrift stores for the matching hardware for this piece [Music] you've probably seen enough scraping for one video so i'll move quickly through the rest of these clips this did take several hours the important thing to remember is it's not necessary to remove all of the old finishes just as much as possible with the paint stripper and the scrapers this just helps cut down on gumming up the sandpaper or even the excessive use of sandpaper so yeah i'll use several tools for sanding i'll start with 150 grit sandpaper work my way up to 220 grit sandpaper in order to apply the final finish which will be spray on lacquer this time while i'm standing you'll notice several parts of the dresser where the paint hasn't been removed yet and that is because i decided to balance my time between finishing the scraping and sanding this entire piece while you're watching i want to say once again thank you for all the ways in which you support the channel if you haven't already consider following me on instagram at mad city furniture where i post daily updates of furniture finds or follow me at mad city modern on facebook and if you feel that i've earned your subscription to this channel please consider hitting that subscribe button hitting that thumbs up and hitting the notification button so you don't miss any future videos thank you for all your support i also posted several photos of this dresser on my youtube community page asking what type of wood this was many of you weighed in with a variety of answers a common answer was elm or even birch my best guess is birch especially with the mention of it in the original ad these wood species are very common in wisconsin and often the cheapest option so it's no wonder that these often were painted furniture pieces directly from the factory i would not recommend using a portable belt sander like this on vintage furniture especially since many pieces are often covered with a thin layer of veneer i'm using the sander in this case because these drawer fronts are solid wood so i expect this type of wood to absorb traditional stains unevenly so i decided to spray on a tinted lacquer i'll first apply fast dry vinyl sealer and this sealer at whoa easy this sealer will act as a good base for all the lacquer finishes to follow the vinyl sealer typically dries in less than five minutes so i'll add several coats of this back to back i'll knock down these layers with four hot steel wool in preparation for the final layers of tinted lacquer and clear coat lacquer this is a three-part solution of lacquer thinner pre-catalyzed lacquer in satin and penetrating dye stain just mix it to the desired color this is medium brown walnut dye stain i'll spray this dresser i have to be honest i'm not in love with this color but i needed to test it for future projects so this is the way it turned out when i went to use my hvlp sprayer i realized the canister had damage so in this video i'm using a harbor freight 1299 special and i have to be honest i'm pretty impressed goodbye for now i'll see you in the comments section foreign [Music] oh uh [Music] you

Channel: Mad City Modern

Views: 127,556

Keywords: furniture flipping, furniture restoration, makeover, painted furniture

Id: C5Iimsk-hZ8

Length: 18min 52sec (1132 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 26 2022