Midcentury modern style is a growing trend, but most people don’t want to live in a home that looks like a time capsule. Giving these pieces a fresh look and feel but still having clean lines and character is the way to go. This can be accomplished by taking the piece down to the original grain and staining with a modern color.
Recently we had a client who came in with a Heywood Wakefield dresser and asked us to give it a fresh modern look. Heywood Wakefield was a furniture designer that began making furniture in 1897 and designed mid-century and art deco inspired pieces. The furniture maker became popular for building quality solid wood furniture with an art deco look.
When the Heywood Wakefield dresser came through our doors our team was eager to get started. It was a chance to bring a piece of furniture history back to life. The dresser had scratches and wear on it from just being around for so many years. And the original color was a red mahogany stain that needed to be sanded out.
We work with a rougher sandpaper and then work our way up to a finer grit to get the furniture down to the bare wood. After several days of sanding, we then can start looking at stain options for the client. Whenever we stain a piece of furniture for a client we always ask them what color they want. However, sometimes stains do not look right on certain wood grains or types of wood.
We want to ensure that our clients are happy with a stain color before staining an entire piece and finding out later that was not what they wanted. To provide the best customer service we will take a piece down to bare wood and then apply a few colors of stain choices. We then have our customers come in and choose the color that they would like.
For this piece, the customer chose an espresso color of the stain. After staining the piece and applying layers of sealer and lacquer the piece was ready for inspection. Once the piece passed inspection we contacted the customer for pick up. The customer could not have been more excited to see how their mid-century modern dresser was transformed.
To learn more about how to transform your furniture into a more modern look and feel give us a call for your next project or visit our contact us page. We look forward to the opportunity to earn your business.