Cleaning Credenzas

January 9, 2014 by Olivia @ Mid-Century Modern(ization) 2 Comments

This post is months overdue, but I owe you all a little story about this stunning fellow came into my life.

The truth is he was hardly stunning when I first saw him.  In fact, he was pretty wrecked.

Goodwill had him marked at $30 which is a steal for a piece of mid-century furniture in any state — let alone a case good of this size.  But he was in rough shape. The top right drawer didn’t close, the finish was sallow and faded, and there were nicks and scratches of varying degrees everywhere I looked.

Lucky for him, I was in need of a buffet table in my dining room so I snatched him up.  Actually, I called Kirk in a panic because he wouldn’t fit in my car and the store wouldn’t hold it for me, but that’s another story.

That very night I gave my little helper a sanding block and told him to get to work. We thoroughly washed him down with a damp soapy cloth and lightly scuffed the entire surface with our sanding blocks.

In the past I would have entirely stripped the existing finish off and restained/sealed it, but this time I tried a new product. Let me just tell you,  Restor-A-Finish changed my life.  It is AMAZING.  I applied it with a rag just like I would furniture polish.  And voila!  The scratches disappeared!  Check out this before and after.

Crazy right?!

I also applied Feed-N-Wax (from the same Howard product line) for a glossy protective coat and cleaned up those lovely brass pulls with a bit of elbow grease. Just look at that shiny top.

One more before and after!

Before…

And after!

And here he is in the room. No more blank wall space under the bike (that was driving me nuts!).
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I am so impressed with this line I may never strip and retain again!  (Don’t quote me on that)