Thrifty Thursday 06 (Part 1): MCM Endtable

UPDATE:: Please excuse my egregious error on this poor Broyhill Sculptra. 

I'm currently working on restoring it using the magic of CitriStrip & Danish Oil. Post to come soon!

Hello & welcome back!

This week's double edition of Thrifty Thursday is going to focus on yet another MCM piece for my office (and another for the bedroom!!). After cleaning out some of the house, and choosing only certain pieces to keep, I've started to notice more, now than ever, how much I love MCM furniture.

Not only is it easy on the eyes with its simple lines, but it's also quite easy to clean, lift, and move around. Most of it is fairly lightweight, which makes it super easy to rearrange, and even better to pack up and move if need be.

Recently, I've received several pieces from this period. One of them was this little Broyhill nightstand. It still had the tag inside of the drawer that explained the "ancient art of veneer," and how the ancient Egyptians started it all (please excuse grainy blown-out pictures, I did this late at night, in a room with zero natural light).

1. Clean the surface. This little guy was filthy (and Clorox wipes weren't doing the trick). I lightly scrubbed with some Dawn dish soap & a dish sponge, making sure to immediately dry the surface with a hair dryer. Wet veneer starts to separate from the glue, and that was not part of the plan for this piece.
2. Choose a finish. This mostly came down to determining the current finish (laminate, veneer, or wood). Then going by the current finish, my options were narrowed down. This piece was veneer, some in terrible repair. I decided to test out the two-tone look I've seen happening to a lot of these older pieces & used some basic white paint. I haven't decided on wheather or not to sand and stain the rest, but if I do, I'll just darken it up a bit with the Dark Walnut stain I'm so in love with.
   
3. Refinish. Creating a seemingly new piece out of the old. Stripping, sanding, and refinishing is a long process, but is usually worth it in the end. Luckily, I just had to lightly sand the shell down before I painted it, and give the drawer front, shelf, and top a good wipe down with some Clorox wipes.
   

And now I have a "new" end table, perfect for a cup of hot cider, a table lamp, and some hidden storage (minus the painter's tape)!

I also have a few pieces "in waiting" for me in this style hanging out in the storage unit. Once our house is in order, I'll be able to start working on those too, but right now, my focus needs to be on getting rid of excess, not bringing in more!

What do you think of this transformation? Let me know in the comments below, or over on our Facebook page!

Here's a preview of our second MCM project for this week! This is going to replace the 1920s nautical dresser I recently finished and listed for sale. It's about the same size, but has a totally different vibe to it, so it'll be perfect for our bedroom!

Hopefully I will have more MCM goodness to come soon! I have a few chairs done for an upcoming Thrifty Thursday post already!! I just have to create the space for them (there's been a missing hardware crisis & I haven't been able to build my Ikea units, so our basement is still crazy).

See you soon!