Nice recovery job, Meg. I'm sorry that the original integrity of the piece couldn't be recovered. But having said that, I think that you did a marvelous job of restoring the original lines and lending a nod to the original wood.

looks great! love the new knobs.

Love it great job

It probably had gouges, not gauges.

I like the knobs, but not on this piece. They don't see to match the character of the dresser or coordinate with the other knobs.

Ugh. Nothing makes my mid century mod heart sink like when I see a piece of wood furniture like this painted! make it stop!

were they not able to refinish it to its original wooden shade?

Are you sure the wood was restor-able? I had a gorgeous 1940's dresser... but it was just wood veneer. It was neither feasible nor worthwhile to try to restore the "wood"--though it looked like a quality piece. A coat of paint was the best we could hope for.

The vintage look of the before-picture tuch my heart much more as the chubby look.

cinnimini - I'm with you...though I hate to see any kind of wood painted. It's beautiful and natural as is - why cover it?

Super cute!

im so tired of hearing "keep the integrity of the wood/piece." not everyone wants to restore the wood finish. also, to the point of @betterbombshell , it could have been wood veneer for all we know.

meg - you did a great job. nothing mean to say here.

LOVE IT!

Great job...although i would have preferred a darker wood finish.

I love it and see nothing wrong with painting wood if you don't want a piece of wood furniture. I especially like the surprise of the anthro knobs :) Fun!

I think what people need to realize is not EVERY piece of furniture from the midcentury period is worth restoring. There was a lot of "department store modern" furniture manufactured back then that was as disposable as Ikea is today. This was a cute, functional, but probably mass produced dresser and therefore most likely not solid wood. I think by reinventing it, Meg has prolonged its life and she has something unique that makes her smile. That's more important, I think.

Very cute and a great way to recycle/reuse an old item.

Maybe include a photo of the damaged parts so we can see for ourselves why it "had" to be painted?

To Karen2980: Veneer is not the same as laminate or particle board...plenty of beautiful, well crafted vintage and antique pieces are wood veneer. It's just another way of making furniture.

I agree that not every vintage piece of furniture is worth keeping original just because it happens to be old. 50 years is really not that sacred. Do whatever you want with your own furniture. I just don't get why anyone prefers the look of paint over wood.

Oh my gosh!!! This is really beautiful and I love the knobs! While some furniture "should" be restored, not EVERY piece of furniture is worth the time, effort, and cost of refinishing. I just loooove how some posters on here make the assumption that the person who painted the furniture isn't smart enough or furniture savvy enough to make that distinction!

Great job Meg! I love that little strip of wood you saved too!

I think it looks great, and I love how you kept some of the wood unpainted.

I love this! Great job Meg! Even though not all the wood is showing, some of it is and that's a good compromise. I don't think it's wrong to show a painted/colored surface. Eames did it - why can't you?

I agree with the statements above that advocate for refinishing rather than repainting wood. The piece is beautiful and i would LOVE to have a similar one in my home! As some pointed out they might have been veneer, but from the marks left from the previous drawer pulls it looks like wood...

Regardless...

that is not my problem with the redo. The paint choice matched with the wood and those knobs completely robs the piece of anything truly mid century modern. Even if you had painted the piece another color more in line with the era would have at least kept some of the original integrity. I really think that this paint job and knob choice makes the piece look cheap and almost prefabricated.

I am sorry but I don't like the painted dresser at all. Personally, I would much rather keep it in its original condition, however, beat up, instead of painting it. The piece (au naturel) had character, now it looks silly.
And yes, I do realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. :)

While I'm sympathetic to the "keep the wood" crowd, this one looks like it might be veneer. Veneers often look better with a well-executed paint job.

Having said that, I don't think this is a great redo. When a dresser has drawers that are slightly off-kilter, then a light shade just serves to highlight the problem. Also, not fond of leaving some wood to shine through. Looks very homemade and not polished.

I really don't understand the vehement opposition that seems to exist towards anyone who paints any wooden furniture. Who's to say what the owner of the piece "should have" done to it - it's her's. Shouldn't the only thing that matters be whether or not she likes the result, and if it works with her decor?

"Veneers often look better with a well-executed paint job" - WTF? Veneer is a beautiful material, and typically not painted during this period. I'd rather paint wood than veneer.

This piece could look fine painted but not like this. The knobs are cute but they look like frosting on meatloaf and don't match the rest of the hardware or the metal wrapping on the legs. The unpainted bits look just dumb.

This was a pretty cool piece but now it's destroyed. It looks like a DIY joke.

I think saying its "destroyed" and a "DIY joke" is pretty harsh and uncalled for. I still think it's cute and I'm sure Meg loves it. That's all that should count.

I do not believe that all wooden furniture is worth keeping as is. I also am fine with painting vintage stuff if it's well done. That said, I'm not a fan of this. The paint looks flat and institutional and don't complement the piece at all. I think it would have looked much better if the veneer (if that's what it is) were refinished rather than painted.

It was so pretty and full of character before....

Everyone who thinks MCM furniture is sacred should walk into my local Salvation Army (or any Salvation Army) and see 10 of these dressers for sale, cheap, on any given day.

Indeed, this kind of stuff was the Ikea or Target furniture of its day. Based on hot, modern designs, yes, but hardly "rare" and certainly not "one of a kind." Those of us who watched this go out of style in the 70s and then be relegated to "tacky grandma furniture" in the 80s remember the mass-produced, generic faddishness of this look.

I'm hip enough in my middle age to appreciate the lines now, again... but people who weren't around for the first go-through with this need to realize that every movement has its artistry, and every movement has its utter schlock. Even if this was a fine piece in its day, if its top was completely ruined, would you rather have seen it thrown out rather than painted and used again?

Amen Mary BC. Amen!

My salvation army and DI stores do not have MCM pieces like this. Its true that this is the owner's piece to do with as Meg sees fit. But by posting the before/after, she is asking for our opinions. If the wood was too far gone to save, I wish she'd shown us. I'm firmly in the "how sad" camp.

I don't fall into either the "preserve the wood" or the "always paint it" camp, but I don't think the repainted version looks that great. Imo, it looks like a piece of furniture having an identity crisis. I don't think the new knobs, the gray, and wood just are working well together. I think a little tweaking of the color and the new knobs would go far.

Just like not every piece of furniture from the midcentury period is worth restoring, not every painted furniture DIY is a sure hit. I think this one is close, but not quite there yet.

aww, i'm with cinniminni. but, to each her own, i suppose!

I'm glad I'm not alone, I was horrified that the beautiful wood was a "before" shot... To be fair, they did a good job on the painted piece, but I would have rather seen it restored.

No.

Aww. I don't feel as harsh about it as many others seem to, and I'm not especially emotional about the "paint or don't paint" topic, but this just doesn't look good to me. I have a huge mid century wood veneer dresser whose drawers I painted as well, though they'd been markered and discolored rather a lot, and I feel quite comfortable with having applied the paint.

This project, though, has a few things that would drive me bonkers: the now-obviously-skewed right side drawers are irksome; the line of unpainted wood down the middle visually makes the whole thing look bowed, like it's falling slightly inward on itself; and the particular paint choice with the crafty-looking knobs is just kind of cheapy now. I'm sorry... I'm glad that you have a piece of furniture that you like and use. But as a desirable piece featured on apartment therapy, I have to give it a thumbs down.

oh no - this makes me so sad! The wood was SO beautiful! The knicks and scratches gave it all the more character.

Very nice. Great job!!

Those red and white knobs are all wrong.