I bought this little cocktail table from a C-list seller a last weekend. It's finish is...well, finished.
I took one look at it and thought this would be a great piece to mess around with
re-finishing Wakefield pieces. I have a number of these Blonde items that need
some attention but have always been afraid to try anything with them. This will
be my training wheels.
I LOVE Heywood Wakefield modern furniture. If I could find all the right pieces I
would likely abandon all my other furnishings for it. Unfortunately there are
limitations. They never produced a Queen size bed (they do now, I know). So it's a
very hard to find King or a too small Full. Not for me. Also, too much Wakefield can
start to look "Matchy-Matchy". But I still love it.
Before......................................................After
So I got this out yesterday and did a little experiment. I tried the Antique Finish
Restorer on it that I used on the little Half Moon table wondering if it would darken
the Blonde finish. It didn't and it cleaned up the surface quite nicely! I've only done
one half of the top so far and I liked how it looks so much that I thought I needed
to share with everybody. I stopped so I could get some good Before and After
shots.
I'm going to experiment with tinting some type of Satin finish to try to get close to
the original blonde. I'm going to probably have to try it a few times, but I might get
lucky.
Who makes the Antique Finish Restorer?
ReplyDeleteI seriously need some.
The stuff I've been using is Minwax Antique Furniture Refinisher. I'm sure there are others too. I (always) suggest that if you can, go to your neighborhood True Value Hardware store to get stuff like this. The people who work at these hardware stores (generally) know where things are and how to use them. Make sue you buy the steel wool when you get the can of refinisher.
ReplyDeleteMucho Thanko Misseur Modtomique!
ReplyDeleteI have an exceedingly small Imperial Mahogany kidney-shaped coffee table from the mid '20's in my living room that (among other things..) needs a good finish restoration.
This stuff might really help.
Other products that we've had good luck with before jumping into a major refinish are Finish Feeder (amazing stuff), Howard Feed-N-Wax and Howard Clean-a-Finish...all available online.
ReplyDeleteAmazing what you accomplished with the Furniture Refinisher. I bet if you called Hank Tosh, he'd talk to you about refinishing Hey-Wake. His contact info is on his Toshmahal site.
Bob - Yer welcome. I try to help if I can. I haven't had a chance to try the Feed-N-Wax but have heard great reviews. I'm gonna have to get some.
ReplyDeleteDana - Do you really think Mr. Tosh would give up some trade secrets? I'd LOVE to skip all the trial and error. I'll give him a holler and see what happens. Maybe you could grease the wheels a little?
Since you live so far away and aren't ever going to be a competitor, it's worth a try. He comes across as the nicest guy in the world, and I think he might be helpful if he knew how passionate you are about MCM furniture. You might send him a link to what you've posted about the table so far. I'll email him and tell him to expect to hear from you. I don't know if it will do any good, but I'll give it a shot.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dana! Yer Awesome.
ReplyDeleteJust got an email from Hank, which said, in part: "That's very cool. Thanks for letting me know. Maybe I can steer him in the right direction." So he's waiting to hear from you. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Dana, I'm so darn busy...I'll try and get an e-mail off to him tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI have the H-W dining room set that matches that table and it's in excellent condition! Looking to sell wishbone dining room table with two leaves, four chairs (including one arm chair) and matching buffet. They have been restored to their original champagne finish! Help! I need to sell them and want fair market value.
ReplyDeletefiregirl1727@hotmail.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete