Eastlake Style Dresser Makeover

This vintage 3 drawer dresser used to have a marble top and a giant mirror. 

 

It is an early 1900’s Eastlake style dresser that has lost some of its earlier magic. It hasn’t lost its structure, solid wood, and well built construction. “Furniture and decor should be made by hand by people who take personal pride in their workmanship”. This was the belief set forth by British architect Charles Eastlake (1836 – 1906). His ideas started the Eastlake style which was a simpler design  style than the earlier ornate Victorian designs. Eastlake designs had lines that are more geometric, with modest curves if any and light carving.  Interesting in that his design style is right in line with our modern clean line design trends. 

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This is an example of an Eastlake style dresser. This one has all the original pieces. These dressers were built lower because of the larger mirror attached to the top. The marble top was functional and easy to clean.

 

 

 

 

 

The dresser needed a good cleaning. My first step in any project is a good cleaning with Fusion’s TSP alternative. Now that the funk was gone, the dresser is ready to paint.

 

 

 

 

 

As I said, the dresser is well built and it just needed some work. But I was a little stumped on what to do with this dresser. It is missing it’s marble top and it is much shorter than today’s dressers. Bob built a plywood top to replace the lost marble top. Bob fixed a drawer and this dresser was in great shape

 

 

 

 

After cleaning this one, I knew I was going to paint the dresser so it needed a little scuff sand. I wanted to try out Fusion Mineral Paint’s custom colors. I decided upon this dark smokey blue color. This color is easy, it is a 50/50 mix of Cathedral Taupe and Midnight Blue. The color turned out gorgeous and a color match to the fan deck color.

No primer was needed prior to painting this piece. If I had chosen a light color or a white, I would have primed this piece with BIN primer. Older wood furniture pieces have wood tannins that will bleed threw your lighter paint colors. When painting with a darker color, the bleed through will not be noticeable.

As I was painting this one, the straight lines gave me an idea. It already had a modern clean line feel so …. add some hairpin legs to give it height. Added hardware to pull this modern design style together. 

 

This one is all finished! I like the modern yet rustic feel to this dresser. Sorry that I got all Ross the archeologist on you all. I am sure most of you only see blah, blah, blah … pretty picture and I just want to know the step by step of this makeover. But I feel like I have to give some facts as to why this vintage or antique piece needs to be saved.  You can just take my word for it but every so often I feel the need the put some science behind my ramblings. I really just want to be Phoebe, run around with my arms flailing  and say everyone come look at this flange thing…. isn’t it pretty! Don’t buy from Pottery Barn, buy furniture that has a history! ? And now only F.R.I.E.N.D.S TV fan will understand this part of the post!