Restoration Thrift Store

I mean, I was walking into the thrift store with no expectations, but when you see something and Welcome, my name is Emily, and if you're new here, I make content on refinis Sometimes I make jokes, and sometimes they aren't funny. When I first spotted t I'm still unsure about the brand, so if you happen to stumble upon my video and you know, please The overall condition of the dresser was pretty good. Vanir c But the side table had extensive water damage on the top. So the plan here is going to be to strip down the tinted lacquer finish, fix the damage, and then we'll go from there. Before I decided to strip off the finish, I wanted to make a quick repair on the back leg. The leg had been damaged from what I'm guessing was being transported or moved at the thrift store. And what I had done because the piece was still there was I picked it up and I ended up taping it to the leg so that it didn't get lost. The only problem was that this chunk did not fully fit into the piece that was missing, so there were So to make the repair on t I used the Gorilla epoxy stick. You just cut off a slice of it and then you need it together. It's kind of I don't recommend doing a lot all at once because it's going to take forever to dry. I also know I'm not wearing gloves, but what you can't see is the regret on my face because t So I do recommend wearing gloves. To strip these pieces, I'm going to use Stripwell's QCS vintage finish remover for the first time. It's non-hazardous and eco-friendly. I've been watching their videos on Instagram to see how to use the product and while there are quite a few steps in the process, I feel I'm not sponsored, but I'll link the Stripwell website below so you can check it out for more information. The stripper is applied using a sprayer, but you can pour it into a container and brush it on as well. The sprayer works really well though. You let the spray sit on the finish, come back, you apply a second coat, and the key with t Since I only work on projects in the evenings and weekends, I had to time t So after your second application has had time to sit on the surface, you can start to remove the finish. If you notice that it hasn't given up the finish or it hasn't started to remove it, they recommend just giving the QCS a bit more time to penetrate through the existing finish. Once the finish is ready to be removed, then you just scrape it off as normal. For t One of my favorite things about using this product is that you don't need to use things You wipe the surface down twice with a damp cloth and then you just wipe it dry. Just a small recommendation when you're working on these especially mid-century modern pieces and antique pieces, it's a good idea to label the drawers as you're taking them out so that you can put them back in the same place that they were removed from. For detailed areas such as the drawers, the process is the same. However, I used steel wool on areas that I couldn't use the scraper on A big difference that I've noticed between using t After the finish was removed, it's time to address the water damage on the top of the side table and the small amount of water damage on the top of the main dresser. I'm going to mix up some oxalic acid, but before I do t I applied three coats to the side table and only one coat to the dresser top, allowing each coat to dry between another application. I rinsed off the oxalic acid with water to remove the residue. Between the oxalic acid and stripping the wood, the veneer on the back of the side table started lifting. I applied some wood glue using a glue syringe underneath the veneer, then I taped it down and clamped it with a board, leaving it to dry for 24 hours. I'm going to sand down the surface using 180 grit sandpaper and apply a finish coat before I repair the c I've been researching how to color match and make a faux wood or wood appearance using different methods and I'd really And one of the t Before applying my finish coat, I'm going to use a tack cloth to wipe up any extra sanding dust that'still on the surface. Then I'm going to apply one coat of general finishes armor seal in satin. On my first coat, I use a non abrasive pad to coat the surface thoroughly. Then I use a lint free cloth to wipe back the excess. I'm going to apply two additional coats after there are a lot of repairs that you can't fix with veneer and so in an effort to get better at making those fixes, I'm trying to get better at using things Now I'm not an artist, so t I did buy a furniture repair kit, but I wasn't able to get a good enough color match to the aged walnut on t But what I found worked best on t I am not mixing them together completely though. I'mixing them just enough so that I have lines of differentiating color on my putty knife. And then what I did was I took the putty knife and I applied that in the direction of the wood grain. My thought process is that wood has varying wood tones, so the more we can mimic t Once the wood filler dried, I sanded it down and I used my Minwax walnut stain marker to lightly add some darker grain lines in the grain line path of the wood itself on top of the wood filler. I'll show you the repair in the reveal. It isn't perfect, but it's definitely a start. My finis Once that's done, I come back and I wipe everyt Once I get that final sanding done, I come in with the vacu To polish the freshly sanded wood, I used Howard's Feed and Wax. T It's also good wax to put on drawer sliders to help the drawer slide better. On raw wood surfaces, When you apply it to raw wood surfaces, give it a good 15 minutes to penetrate into the surface and then wipe back the excess. I cannot stress enough how the finis These pieces of furniture haven't been conditioned inside since they were made and some pieces of furniture have never had the inside cleaned. On larger surfaces It also helps to remove the dust that the vacu Okay, it's finally time for glamour shots. Those are still a t Honestly, t It just needed a little bit of love. Now my normal process is that I tend to stain t But after looking at t I'm sure there's going to be somebody who disagrees with t I'm also sure that someone's going to love t If you've made it all the way to the end, be sure to check out some of my other furniture videos