Thread: 1930's Art Deco Kitchen Dresser

What a great find. Look forward to seeing the restoration.

That should look great when done,have one similar done up years ago,any idea how much it would sell for after you have finished it?

Originally Posted by nrb

That should look great when done,have one similar done up years ago,any idea how much it would sell for after you have finished it?

I'm restoring this dresser for a friend. It's been in the family since new, so it has a lot of sentimental value.
Kitchen dressers are actually quite useful, so there is some demand I expect.

The complete one in the pictures had a price of $850. This was from an antique shop.

Greyt stuphph Thumbthumper!!!

I wonder how much of that beautiful old style has been painted, modified,
or just thrown out??

The paint's all gone now. It'll need a good scrub to get the last little flecks out of the veneer grain.

These photos are the progress shots.

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I've started to polish the doors. It's good thing to do when you have a moment during the day.

Before and after the first coat.

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I've ordered some split cane that is used for moldings, and I have my eye on some deco drawer pulls on a couple of different websites.

After I finish scrubbing the whole thing down to get as much of the paint out of the grain as possible, I'll start patching a few spots in the veneer. I'll try to post some WIP on that job.

Cheers all ...

It's just such a pleasure to see this being brought back to life!!

Spent some time in the shed doing some fiddly bits.

Cleaning the hinges and screws. I used a soft brass wire wheel in the drill press.

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I ordered some split cane from a mob in QLD to replace the old broken and missing moldings.
Here I am planing the back of the cane to get it nice and flat, I will need to sand the skin and leaf nodes off and stain them a Walnut colour before replacing.
This is how they were originally done.

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Some of the veneer problem areas.

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My 'library' of Walnut veneer pieces.

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First pic is the cleanout of a veneer ding. I then take a rubbing of the area using masking tape.


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Stick the rubbing to a matching piece of veneer and cut out with a scalpel.
You'll usually need to tweak the size of the patch with some sandpaper.
I then hinge it with masking tape.


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I use hide glue and saturate the whole patch (back and front) and press in.
Because it's a curved surface, I use dressmakers pins to secure the patch. It's a bit hard to clamp as you would with a flat surface.

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When it dries, I'll sand it flush with fine paper and add a touch of stain if required.

Back to the shed now to sand split cane

Cheers all ...

Great to see the level of work you're going to on this. I'm particularly interested in your approach with the veneer 'dings' and using a rubbing etc. I have an early 1900's desk I should start on sometime which will need some veneer repairs. Looking forward to seeing your progress! Lawry

Some more progress shots.


Here's the cutlery drawer.
It did have remnants of felt stuck to the drawer bottom, but here I've used a cotton drill stuck down with hide glue. I haven't nailed in the bottom yet (slipped in for the pic) as I want to wait until I install the handles (which are now in transit). This just saves cleaning if I have to re-drill the drawer fronts.
The hide glue, when made a bit thicker doesn't seem to soak into the material. In my old piano technician days, we always used hide glue for the doeskins and felts so that they didn't harden.
I love the way you can see the wear of the cutlery at the back of the drawer. Knives on the left, forks in the centre and spoons on the right.
I could have replaced the dividers as they were pretty smashed up, but I ended up repairing the originals. Glueing, clamping, cleaning.

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All the doors are now finished.
I had intended to just rag on a finish, but I ended up french polishing the Walnut panels, and just rubbing the frames with the BLO/shellac mix.
Finished with a hard wax and buffed.
The push catches are not original I believe, but they've been there quite a while and they suit the style. I'm not sure I'd be able to source originals.
Thankfully, all the hinges are definitely original and in good condition.

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The first coat of neat shellac on the veneered side. This side didn't need patching.
The other side still has some veneer repairs to do.

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I can actually see light at the end of the tunnel now

Looking great Stu. One of the nicest dressers I have seen. Well worth restoring.

The veneer patching is all done ...

The nasty hole at the bottom of the right side was a challenge.
I used a Dremel to cut the ragged base plywood into a somewhat neat hole.
I trimmed and cleaned the walnut veneer ready for the patch.
I glued in a fairly thick piece of veneer (cedar) to use as a backing.

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I used a contour gauge to replicate the arc, band sawed a scrap piece of pine, and then trimmed it down and glued it in.

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Patched and pinned...
It looks a bit redder than the original walnut, but I'll blend with oxides/stain.
It actually looks very close when wet down.

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Another patch done...

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The new (old) handles arrived from the big auction site in the sky.
Original 1930's.

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This is one of the old handles in situ. Made by Turner Australia.
These would have been added in the 60's. Turner was bought out by Stanley around 1970.

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Better ?

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Next job is to shellac the right side, top, and rails and replace the inner case drawer runners.
Then it's time to polish, polish, polish



soon

New/old handles much better.

Originally Posted by NCArcher

New/old handles much better.

I think so.

I spent a lot of time looking around the world for suitable handles. I was never going to find handles that fitted the imprints perfectly.

Original 1930's, great design, and very complimentary. The auction was for a total of 3 at a reasonable price

I'm hoping the owner will be happy with them.