This chest of drawers was found near the Wall Woodworks shop sitting on the side of the curb. What caught my eye was the carved shell detail. Upon further inspection I found that the drawers were dovetailed and then the final and fluted detail jumped out at me. They legs were also well made. I just couldn’t let the piece go to the dump.
It sat there among two other chests, one of which had a mirror that connects to the back of it. Unfortunately they had gotten rained on and the other two chests were maple and they split in many different spots. This one luckily didn’t have any of the veneer peeling off or any splitting.
The only real defect, besides the massive amount of scratches and dings, was a separation of one of the uprights that divided the three top drawers and the first large drawer. This separation cause the first large drawer to drag and you couldn’t close it at all. Some glue and clamps fixed that fairly easily.
After that was fixed I for some reason didn’t want too sand the whole thing down too nothing. I really liked the way the dark colored finish sat in the profiles, on the legs, on the shell detail, the flutes, around the drawers, and the legs. So call it lazy if you like thought there would be a contrast of color so I left them be. I only sanded the top, top edge, the two side panels, and the drawer fronts.
The top of the chest had a beautiful book matched pair, of what seemed like cherry at the time, but was later identified as mahogany panels.
This was the first time that I used two different types of polyurethane too accent each other. For all of the old dark colored wood I wiped on a clear satin finish which dries semi-dull and has an antique feel. The top, side panels, and drawer fronts I used a semi-gloss so it shines and shows off the color of the mahogany.