If you are into mid century furnishings, then you know Kent Coffey.
He made some wonderful, top quality pieces. I saw this one on CL, but didnt think much of it.
Until, I saw the same one in black on 1stdibs going for $8900! Say what???!!
1stdibs is an online, high-end designer goods showcase. Many designer stores in the big cities list their inventory on this site. Needless to say, I called the guy on CL to see if it was still avail. I wont tell you what I paid for it, but it was a killer deal.
The one pic below is the one for sale on 1stdibs. I liked it in black. So I copied.
And here is mine!!! Not bad, eh??
But Im getting ahead of myself. Lets watch the transformation.
By far the most difficult and time consuming part, was this hardware. And there was a lot of it! I took off each piece and marked its place. Ive found that its always best to put certain hardware back in its original place. It just fits better. These were so grimy! I used Krud-Kutter to clean them and then steel wool and a metal cleaner (Brasso and Mothers) to try and take off the tarnish. I knew I was going to spray them with a metallic paint, but I didnt want to spray over this gunk. It wont hold up.
So after many, many hours ( I spread this process out over a period of weeks) heres what I
ended up with:
Just a tad better. Now these just didnt get sprayed once and put back on. Oh no. They were sprayed, then finely sanded with steel wool, then sprayed again. Sometimes a third time if there were bad spots. Then they got a final coat of sealer. Yes, even the screws were sprayed. 3 parts to each pull.
There were 18 pulls. Uh-huh. Count with me. MISERY!!
Now the wood part. This dresser has a mahogany base. The wood finish was in bad condition. Could I have just primed and painted over it? Well yes.
Would it have looked like poop? Well yes.
Your finish is as only good as your base. I used a glossy latex enamel. In black. Its gonna show ever mar and bump. So I sanded off every bit of existing finish until I got to raw wood.
Pristine.
You dont want to paint over raw wood. I applied a wood sealer. And sanded again.
I sand so much, it probably explains why I could use my own hands as sandpaper.
In the garage and the finished top. I believe I did spray a coat of gray primer.
And I think it got 3 coats of black. I did brush it on and it came out very nice. No marks.
This does have a matching mirror I have to get to. With about 10 of these handle things on it!
Ended up making my own stencil. I printed it out on contact paper and used an exacto knife.
