Bedroom Makeover: Mid-Century Dresser Makeover - Before

It's killing me a little bit how long my bedroom makeover is taking, but that's real life, folks! I'm doing all of the work myself to help cut costs and delegating manual labor to the weekends so I can get my other work done during the week so progress is a little slow. Nonetheless, I'm nearing the finish line on one of my bigger projects for the bedroom and I'm so excited to share!

I stumbled across this mid-century dresser on the way to the grocery store one evening. It was on the side of the road, the only remnant from a church rummage sale earlier that day. I pulled a u-turn in the nearest driveway and handed over a $10 bill to the church lady for it. Sounds like a good deal, but I won't lie, a couple times I wondered if I paid too much. I seem to have a knack for wanting to save vintage things that are covered in bird poop...



Enter screaming emoji here! Yeah, it was pretty nasty, but I was hoping with all my might that it could be salvaged, because how cool would it be to be able to say I paid $10 for a 6' long mid-century dresser with tons of storage?

The good:

• The form is great - classic mid-century, low, long dresser/credenza
• Pretty good condition - no sagging or broken pieces besides a drawer front that needed some glue
• It's big! 9 total drawers (there are 3 behind the center doors) so it would be a useful storage piece
• Cool hardware 

The bad:

• The finish (in addition to being under layers of dust and bird poo) was really dry and yellowed
• There was a patch of dark stain that someone hastily smeared over one side of the top before realizing that it was a bad idea
• The veneer on the top was stained in a couple areas 
• The hardware would need some elbow grease

The good and bad:

• It's not solid wood and would never be an heirloom piece. While it can be tricky to restore veneer, there's some freedom in knowing that I could confidently fix it up to make it work for my space without screwing up something my future grand kids would want to take to Antiques Roadshow. I'm pretty sure they'd laugh at the particle board top...

Come back later this week when I reveal the finished piece and show you exactly how I did it!