Happy Hour : Furniture Magic

Every been in a restaurant when it turns "Happy Hour?"  You notice the mood instantly changes as everyone is ready for fun.  Whenever I'm having a Bad Hair Day, my cure is always a personal Happy Hour.  Of course, I'm hopeless addicted to interiors; so for me, this hour is all about decorating. In this series, we'll look at some quick and happy mood changers for our very own Happy Hour.  Each should take about an hour - a mere 60 minutes - to perk up our minds and our rooms. Let's get the party started.

I know some of my Happy Hours take more than an hour, but this one really does take 60 minutes or less. Promise! This year, I threw caution to the wind when I sanded the kitchen table in situ as I was having floors refinished soon after. I was OK with making a mess refinishing the table. This week, I knew I had a small window to do something similar. Second floor carpet is being replaced in a couple of weeks. What better time to refurbish an old chest of drawers in place?

This Meier & Frank (Portland's own) mahogany chest came from Auntie Bea's house. I think it's from the 1940's. Standing near a sunny bedroom window, the chest had faded. A lot.

Restor-A-Finsih to the rescue! An amazing solution for a quick refresh of old furniture. Wipe it on, wait 20 minutes and wipe off. Easy Peasy!

I wasn't too concerned about the stain getting on the carpet and the chest was too heavy to move by myself.

I did move the drawers to P's old office. Once it gets new carpet, no more using the room for projects.

I completely forgot to take a "before" photo. Doh! But here's a drawer. At the top is the "before" and the bottom half is "after." As you can see, the after is much better but it's still not as dark as the original finish (ovals under the removed handles).

What took the longest was removing the hardware and screwing them back on. I chose not to polish the handles as I do like this patina.

Howard's Feed- N-Wax was the next step.

I applied the recommended wax.

I easily polished to a mirror finish.

All done! Let's recap - Took off the hardware and moved the drawers to another room. Then, a quick swipe of Restor-A-Finish, waited 20 minutes and wiped off. Then I applied wax and polished. Really, under 60 minutes! I recommend doing this on certain pieces as sometimes, "patina" is not all it's cracked up to be.

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Another option would have been to paint the chest black but having some brown wood furniture in a room works for me. If you have a piece of furniture in need of help, I recommend Restor-A-Finish. Now, just have to remember to wax in a few months. Hey, have a great Sunday! I'm taking a week off but I'll be back on July 31st. Gotta love midsummer!