The story
Found under a stack of moving blankets at an estate sale. Stripped of a bad 70s paint job, the original grain brought back with a hand-rubbed oil finish, and the drawer runners rebuilt so every drawer glides again. Original brass pulls, polished.
The tiger-stripe figure you see across the drawer fronts is the ray fleck of quarter-sawn oak. It was hiding under three coats of green paint.
What we did
- Stripped three layers of 1970s latex paint by hand
- Rebuilt the drawer runners and re-glued the drawer joints
- Raised the dents in the top with steam
- Hand-rubbed oil finish, then paste wax
- Original brass bail pulls cleaned and polished
Honest notes
A faint water ring is still visible on the top in raking light; we left it rather than sand through the old surface. The top drawer front has a slight, original bow. Small paint traces remain deep in the corner joints.