When my client contacted me about refinishing this cool corner shelving unit, it seemed pretty straightforward.
She requested a combination of paint and stain. The trick was fixing all of the damage that plagued the shelves. It had fallen forward at one point and that caused damage throughout the structure of the top. The fronts of two of the shelves were crushed in, the shelves were separating from the base on one side, one of the shelves was cracked in half, some of the scrollwork was broken, and the top was strangely warping up.
Step one was all about the repairs. All the damage was glued, clamped and braced. Next, I used epoxy and filler to smooth over the damaged areas. I’ll admit she looked pretty rough at this stage. I stripped the drawer fronts and two of the curved areas and restained them a medium brown. The wood grain on those areas was gorgeous and really just needed to be refinished to bring them back to their optimal beauty. Next came the paint. We selected a creamy off-white and I distressed it to reveal the original dark stain below.
The distressed finish honors the age of the piece, while the paint and restained wood give it a fresh new face.
