The Ultimate Art Deco Vanity Restoration

Hey everyone and welcome to the latest video and in this one we're going to be working on this beautiful Art Deco style dressing table or vanity unit depending on where you are in the world. This is a lovely piece of furniture it's not true 1920s Art Deco it's actually Art Deco inspired and it's from the 1940s but I will tell you more about that later in the video. The Art Deco theme there's a reason for that I'm actually doing this video as a collaboration with a friend of mine Cole who has his own furniture flipping restoration channel and that's called Flip It Nation you may have seen it you more than likely have and we're doing this together. Hey there Mayfield restoration viewers it's Cole from Flip It Nation I'm super excited to be doing this Art Deco challenge collaboration with David and Daisy of course. David's skills are much more polished than mine I've seen his piece about halfway through and it already looked spectacular so I'm super excited to see what he does with it. Enjoy the video and hopefully I'll see you on my channel afterwards cheers. The reason we're doing it we both love Art Deco furniture and we just thought it'd be a bit of fun to do an Art Deco piece we both sourced a piece of Art Deco furniture and we want to see if we can make it beautiful again. I was really fortunate in that I had this in my stock as I was given it by a friend who I used to work with some time ago. So we'll go through it in a bit more detail in a second but as always sit back relax and enjoy and thanks for watching. You're probably looking at this through the screen and thinking this isn't in terrible condition and there's areas that aren't in that bad a condition like the top and there's a reason for that and I'll show you that shortly. It has got some scratching on the top which I'll show you in a second but there is quite a lot of finish issues with this and broken veneer and some other issues but the main stand out features for me on this are these draw handles these draw pulls these are absolutely beautiful I've never seen anything like that before it's a really unusual piece of furniture lots of lovely curves on it and it's also got these curved cupboard doors which are just so nice lots of storage in there really beautiful piece of furniture so hopefully we can make it look stunning but let's go around it a bit more detail now like I say the top isn't in terrible condition and there's a reason for that it has got a couple of scratches though there's a big one there one there and this is probably the one I'm most worried about it's got these lovely oval details on it as well I think they're solid oak this is definitely veneered oak but overall the top's not terrible this is a little close-up view of these lovely pulls obviously they need work but look at those they're so nice it's also got this lovely carved detail here there's a little bit missing there so we'll see if we can sort that out the finish on the base is in terrible condition lots of scratches and dents obviously it's well worn but we're going to remove all of this finish anyway more lovely handles there and in the cupboards they're not in terrible condition they're not in bad condition at all then so I'm hoping I don't have to do too much with those the drawers all seem okay they're a little bit stiff but that'll be no problem once we refinish it it's also got just bear with me one second it's also got it's mirror so we'll just clean this up as well you don't often get it with a mirror that's in as good a condition as this but it's heavy so all in all it's in okay condition but there is a lot of work it's a big piece of furniture this there's a lot of finish to remove there's some repairs to do you need to clean all the hardware up and it's going to take some time but hopefully you'll enjoy the process so let's crack on I'm not too sure whether I want to strip the top with a chemical stripper or scrape it yet if I'm going to scrape it this is going to be a bit of a pain now this has got some ornate caps on the top I suspect I don't know for 100% but I suspect these are either screws or the hiding a screw underneath so hopefully we can get these off yeah that's coming off yeah that's just a little decorative cap hopefully you can see there it just looks like a hole so it's got a threaded hole in it but this outside is a screw and in the middle there there is a little slot so this should in theory just unscrew yeah I've no idea what the real the proper name for these fixings is but let me know in the comments if you do but yeah look obviously I don't want to break these screws because it's not something I've got so that is solid oak there we go obviously these are the doors and as you can see there they've got the the bolt covers on that one is really rusty when I looked at that I thought it was uh thought it was wood but it's not it's just completely rusted out I think yeah I think most of this hardware is going to go after in a rust bath this hinge is a real pain you can see how much rust is on it there I think this piece must have been in either a damp environment or in out in the rain or something but there's a lot of rust on all the fittings so I don't want to risk doing I'm just doesn't want to budge right let's try the heat trick right this is the heat trick get a soldering iron this is my new one actually got this from Lidl dead cheap turn it on just let that warm up so the plan is you apply heat to these screws they expand and they break the rusted seal inside I think that's the plan anyway it has worked in the past but I need to hold this on for about five minutes so I'll be back right it's had a good few minutes this now here we go I think yep there we go yeah that's going in the bin these are terribly rusty as well as you can see right all the hardware's off and as you can see it's not in the best of condition all this is the mirror most of this is the mirror hardware it's covered in rust the hinges are rusty the catches are rusty all the screws are rusty I'm not going to put the pulls in because they've got a finish on them and I don't want the rust remover to do anything to the finish probably same with those as well I'll clean them up by hand right let's give them a soak as you all know the star of my channel is Daisy and for Cole it's his little boy Sonny who is an absolute superstar so I thought I'd just give you a quick intro to Sonny did you catch it say thanks Sonny I just want to see how easy it is to scrape this finish off I'm presuming this is shellac because of the age of the piece and how glossy it is so it should in theory scrape quite easily but we'll see you can see the difference where that's been protected under that disc or oval how much harder that is to scrape whereas this because it's had the sunlight on it do you know what it's not that easy to scrape this I think I'm going to use a stripper I just want to go over it with some 4-0 steel wool and some stripper just to remove any of the last bits go with the grain okay this detailing here I'm not 100% sure whether this is wood I don't think it is I think it might be Bakelite so obviously I don't want to be sanding this because old Bakelite sometimes add asbestos in it so obviously I don't want to be doing too much that's abrasive to this so I'll use paint stripper just leave that to do its thing right this has had quite a few minutes now probably about five about ten minutes so I'm just going to agitate stripper into the details with a brush just get rid of the excess and see what we're dealing with right this isn't a wire brush it's just a nylon brush let that dry a bit more and then I'll brush off any excess and then we can neutralize the whole lot and it's done right the next thing I need to do is obviously I need to fix this but a lot of this veneer on this edge particularly is loose starting to lift up but before I fix that I just want to make sure everything else is reinforced yeah it's pretty much all loose this right I'll just go along there glue that up and see where we get to okay I'll check that other side now if that needs doing I'll do that as well I've thoroughly checked the other side and that's the only loose veneer so I'm not too sure why the other side was so bad but that's not too bad so just just leave that to dry now once I got it on each side I had a look at the back end and there was a few areas on that as well so I've done this side and I've done the other side so I think the best thing to do now is while all that's drying I'll move on to the drawers I've no doubt as I go I'll probably find more little bits of veneer that have come loose but that's all I can see for now so we'll crack on hello have you come to say hello me good girl if you can tell but she's had a bit of a haircut and the reason for that is she was getting far too hot in the recent shut up a minute I'm talking she was getting far too hot in the warm weather I don't normally cut her that short but I've cut her I've cut her quite short this time she looks she doesn't look the best but she feels a lot better don't you what very very cheeky do you want a cork then come on come get your cork no we're not going in we're not oh right she wants the washing line ready steady go oh oh oh oh dear what do you want okay there you go happy now you've got it caught under your leg haven't back to work right it's time to attack these drawers and strip them let's leave that now all right this should be dry now so the best way to take this off is that way rather than that way because I don't want to pull any veneer back on itself okay obviously I've got some I need to repair but I'll go around set the rest of it off and then I'll get this finish off I'm hoping you can see here when I brush it how bad the finish is it's all it's just flaking off it's totally failed so that's why this needed refinishing right oh I've done all this side on that side now all I've got to do is the inside of the pedestals um a word of advice don't wear shorts when you're doing this on the floor because I've knelt in this stripper about four times and burnt my legs so I'm just going to strip the rest of it now I'm sure you don't need to see all that so I'll get on with that and I'll get back to you shortly I've noticed the veneers bubbling up in a couple of parts where the glue's failed so it'll have been put on with high glue this and I'm hoping I don't need to I don't want to be taking this off obviously so I'll just have to do some either some spot repairs or I can try applying heat right across it to see if that reactivates the old glue but to be honest there's not many of them so I might just do a spot repair and I just need to get a bit of glue underneath I suspect yeah the other side will be the same okay right it's now time to repair this veneer this is the worst part on it um there's a piece missing there one there one there this obviously is the largest piece of and there's a little piece at the end down here so I think the first thing we'll do is focus on this area right this is oak so I've got some oak obviously it's lighter because it's brand new but it's the right type of wood so we'll we'll use some of this right okay the rest of these little repairs I can I can stick these down with tape but this one is a bit bigger and it's on the curve so I want to make sure this this sits down and doesn't it doesn't raise up so we'll come up with a plan because it's on a curve obviously a flat piece of wood won't do it so I've got this bit of high density foam so the plan is to clamp so that now follows the contour so hopefully that does the job they look a bit odd at the minute but obviously once everything's sanded and colored and what have you they should blend in a lot better than that right everything is stripped down now um it's taken quite a while most all the veneer repairs are done that I can see um I'm sure there'll be more as I as I start sanding this um you generally find that when you start sanding you see things you didn't see previously so I'll the next step is sanding but before I do that I need to give this a thorough clean I need to neutralize the stripper but it's also filthy inside and so I'm going to give it a thorough cleaning everything so that's what we'll do next I always love it when you see the original maker's handwriting this just says it's just got basically what this part what this part is plinth end left it says the operator number the quality good I think that says yeah it doesn't say the age but I'll show you something in a second regarding the age that's good that this is the manufacturer's mark on the back hopefully you see that it's that's a c and there's another one there and it says 41 and underneath it there's a number which is 166 which is the manufacturer's code and it's utility where cc 41 is you not utility or utility furniture and it's just after the second world war so I think I'll check the dates but I think it's round about mid 40s so definitely not 1920s art deco but certainly in the style these metal sliders there appears to there should have been six on each by the look of it there's one missing there's one missing there one missing there one missing there the rusty and also these tend to scratch wooden floors which a lot of people have now so I'm going to change these out right I'll do that on the rest okay do the same on the other end we're done right the best laid plans I was putting these in the other side and obviously this peak this plinth looks like it's been glued in the past and look at that as I've banged it in it's split the glue what a pain so I just need to re-glue that now never mind okay just leave that to dry right so all the repairs are done I can see I wiped it all down it's now fully dry it's the next day so it's just time to start sanding for these doors because they've got quite a curve on them so I'm use this smaller sander 90 mil sander with a sponge pad I've just noticed as I'm sanding this there's a little piece of veneer I knew this would happen I just come across things I haven't seen before a little piece of veneer there a little piece of veneer there so I need to fix those because these are so small just gonna use a bit of CA glue I've also glued this edge the veneer was lifting a bit in some places right another job done nearly finished with the sanding now it's taken forever it's a big piece this it might not look it but it is a big piece there's a 240 grit I just want to show you something on this I don't know whether you can see this but they're all the way through this as a this scratches going up the grain going across the grain now don't know whether they're saw marks you can see one better there but these are all over all over this so I need to I need to sand them out as much as I can without going through the veneer so wish me luck my goodness that took some sanding something else I forgot I forgot about this little bit of veneer that's missing from earlier so just a little bit filler okay I'm having a nightmare I thought I was just gonna I've cleaned the back but I just thought it was a bit messy I'll just give it a tidy up with the light sanding and as I'm doing it I went too near the edge of the piece that I've just spent the last eight hours sanding and look what's happened the sander hit the veneer and just ripped it out from the edge so now I've now got to do yet another veneer repair I've done so many on this as I've gone on I haven't filmed it all because it was all the same but the veneer on this is so fragile right I'm not gonna sand the back of this now I'm just gonna make it look a bit more even clean it up with some white spirit and and and fix that right let's crack on right I've sort of cleaned it up a little bit the back it's not ideal but I need to keep away from them edges as you can see I hit the other edge as well so I've had to repair two pieces there and that huge piece that I showed you before so hopefully that's it for repairs okay so finally everything is sanded obviously this is just have those veneer repairs done so this is drying one of the other drawers I found another crack on that so I fixed that that's drying but everything's sanded up to 240 grit I just need to get all the dust off it now ready for stain finally what a job this is what she does to try and get my attention oh now you've done it oh you've done that you've done that on purpose you're a cheeky little thingy what have you done there you go okay finally ready for stain and I had a bit of a dilemma I didn't know whether to go light and bright or dark and moody I'm not a big fan of light I'll be honest I do most my things like it more of wood tones and darker colors it's just what I prefer I think for this piece the style of it and the fact I've done a lot of repairs on the veneer I think I'm gonna wear on the side of a darker finish so that's what I'm gonna do so hopefully you like it I'm pretty sure it'll look good in the end but we'll see so let's go with that right this color is rosewood beautiful for those that have watched my channel before you'll know that I like to sort of make the details pop a little bit so hopefully you can see this but there's little dots all over now I think I might know what this is and I forgot to re-sand it I left it out yesterday to dry and it rained on it for about for a few seconds and left drops on it and obviously I've just left it to dry but I think what that's done is slightly raised the grain where the the drops have gone on it and it's taken the stain in a different way so I'm gonna let this dry and just go over it with a bit of sandpaper just to just to flatten it off and then redo it no big deal right let's have a go at doing this hardware they don't feel like brass these but they might be the reason I'm doing these by hand and not on the polishing wheel is because I've done this before and they've been brass plated and I've burnt straight through the brass plating well they're not they're not magnetic but that doesn't necessarily mean the brass right I'll persevere with this see if I can get them nice and shiny again right I'm not I'm still not 100% sure whether these are brass or not they don't seem to be at the back but but I really like how they've come up I've had to pick out every little piece of fluff and dirt from these things then give it a brush steel wool polish and a buff and that's where you get to right I finally finished all these now and it took me because I was doing it by hand it took me about an hour and a half so anyway they're all done I'm just gonna give these a coat of acrylic lacquer now to keep that shine right while the stains drying we'll have a look at these that I put in the rust bath so it stinks right I'm gonna have to clean these up so we'll be about an hour taking me a long time but I've got everything cleaned up now and I've got all the screws which I'm gonna spray I'm gonna spray some of this as well but I want to make sure it's completely dry before I put any paint on it right it's time for top coat and I'm gonna use an acrylic lacquer but before I do that I'm gonna put these oak panels back on in the contrasting colors I didn't mark these so I can't remember whether they actually go on a specific side but we'll soon find out right I'm gonna have a quick look at this mirror but on second look I thought it was in reasonable condition it's not in the best of condition I guess it's just its age this isn't too bad where the mirror is degraded at the edge it adds a bit of character but there's a big chip behind this bracket and the one across the other side is the same and it's also got like I'm hoping it'll clean off but it feels like the glass is pitted so I'm gonna take it to pieces give it a clean and see if there's anything we can do with it if it doesn't come up to scratch and I won't be using it right I've made an executive decision with the mirror I'm not happy with it it looks a bit naff the rest of it I've got it to as near perfect as I can and spent a lot of time doing it and this mirror just lets it down so it's quite a deep dressing table vanity anyway so you could get a really nice freestanding mirror on that so I'm just gonna leave it off I'll keep hold of this but the what I'm gonna do with it I don't know but yeah executive decision made I'm not putting the mirror on don't whack me in the comments I mentioned earlier that the top was in good condition there's a reason for that I'll show you the reason now it had this shaped piece of glass come with it and it's in pretty decent condition I'll clean this off whether I use it or not I don't know I just like the natural wood top but it might be it might be useful I am gonna sell this piece so I can sell it with this on so I'll put this to clean now you don't need to watch me do this you just watch me clean the mirror I'm not going to use so yeah I'll clean that up we're coming towards the end of this video now and it's been another long journey I hope you've enjoyed it I've certainly enjoyed doing this art deco piece like I say this is one of my favorite styles of furniture and it's been an absolute pleasure doing it with coal on board as well it's been nice to share the experience with somebody rather than just doing this on my own if you have enjoyed it please give it a thumbs up and if you haven't already please hit that subscribe button to make sure you don't miss out on future videos like this I'd like to say a massive thank you to everybody that supports the channel whether that's through the buy me a coffee or the super thanks button I really really do appreciate it make sure you go and check out Cole's video once you've seen this I'll leave a link to his video on the end screen of this one and I'll also leave a link in the video description as always thanks for watching and we'll see you on the next one