1950's Atomic furniture fun (?) and a happy new Kohinoor dresser and mirror go home...

Let me start by saying I'm not a huge fan of the 50's blonde furniture as a rule. Although some of the pieces have some nice lines, they are not in high demand for most people and seem to need more work than the later darker danish pieces. Usually heavy veneer damage and more stains to contend with than is worth the time and effort. Sadly, most end up in landfills. It's kind of a shame because these were still better quality than most of the furniture manufactured today.

However there are exceptions to every rule and so is the case here. I needed to redeliver my recently refinished H/W Kohinoor dresser and mirror across the bay to my client in St. Pete, and with a list of all the thrifts on hand I checked in with the CL postings in the general vicinity. I like the new format on CL that shows thumbnails of the lead pic. Helps sort the trash from the possible treasure quite a bit faster! Hmm...that looks interesting!

I called the seller to set up an appointment and it would have to be later in the day. The listing was 2 days old and the price was more than I was really comfortable with. The dresser came with a beveled mirror and the chest was also shown with a mirror attached. The mirror attached to the chest was not original and I left behind as it was nothing special.
I really fell head over heels on the great lines and those flying 'V' pulls on the drawers. Yes, I did pick these two pieces up against my better judgement. And the seller would not budge on the price as they had another possible interest. Did I mention the swell drawer pulls!

As much as I tried to talk myself out of this, (do you really need any more projects?) I couldn't resist! According to my research Harmony House was a Sears brand sold from 1940-1968. When I pulled the mirror plate off the frame the date confirmed that this was indeed mid 50's.

As the plate was manufactured in 1954, I'd guess the pieces were circa either 1954 or 1955. Even though I tried to look these pieces over really well before comitting, I still found plenty of loose and chipped veneer getting them loaded. Thankfully there weren't too many stained areas and they didn't appear to be too deep. Before starting, the existing loose veneer had to be stabilized. The base aprons were the worst and it was just about a lost cause. Even while I was in sanding mode, I had to constantly stop and refix areas that broke loose.  

And that finish that looked so dry and ready to fall off managed to be as much work as any Heywood Wakefield piece that I've worked on! My enthusiasm was starting to ebb a bit and I was mentally kicking myself and wondering exactly what I planned to do with this next. There was no way this was going to look anything like it did when we met.

After the first sand there was still a ton of embedded toner in the veneer that seemed to take forever to remove. I thought for sure I'd end up eating through this, but it held up pretty well. The veneer looks like it could be a lighter mahogany. Very fine consistent grain. As this was going much slower than anticipated, I had plenty of time to think about where to go now.

The main attraction of these pieces were the drawer pulls and the routed lines in the drawer and these needed to be showcased. I was already comitted to these being done in a darker stain so I needed the routed areas to stand out. The base aprons on both pieces were really too rough to stain. Solution? Paint the base aprons black along with the routed lines in the drawers before the final sand and stain. I think I'll go with black for the mirror frame as well for accent!

And that fleet of rockets? Yes, they are going to need a fresh look. They are missing most of the plating and need to pop to give the finishing touch. Can you see where I'm going with this? I hope this turns out somewhere near what I envision. Ready to see the finished pieces? Me too, but they're not done yet, so you'll have to check out the next post.

In the meantime, here's the Heywood Wakefield M144 Kohinoor dresser that just went home. I noticed in re-delivering the dresser that my client had a king size bed with no headboard. Seemed kind of a shame to have a complete H/W bedroom and no headboard! Hey, I have a solution for that! I just happened to still have a M790 king storage headboard on hand and it could surely be refinished in "wheat" to match all the rest of the room. Yup, you guessed it! Sold! And they still have a chest that needs to refinished after I finish the headboard. Looks like I have my hands full for quite awhile going forward!

Thanks as always for taking a look and feel free to comment or let me know if you have any questions. Next up...The exciting conclusion to our atomic 50's pieces.





Danish delight overdue no more...and another Heywood Wakefield headache

I've had this poor abused danish sofa for almost two years waiting for me give it a new life. It's not that I didn't want to get it done before now, but other more pressing projects conspired to eat away at my time. My wife has been pressing to get our living room cleaned out for about as long as this has been sitting there and as I had a short break in the action, this was the time!

I picked it up with this chair as a set but the chair went to a new DIY home months ago. Although pretty close, the sofa and chair were not an exact match as the chair had a slatted back and the sofa is doweled. Both had very dry and deteriorating finishes and those cushions speak for themselves! These were not candidates for Howards or even an overstain. The sofa would have to be completely stripped and restained and the fabric had to go!

The previous owner had tacked this paneling over the seating area which was a mystery to me, as all the bands were still intact and firm. Maybe they were larger body types? This particular type of sofa is pretty easy to disassemble. Ten screws and it basically just unhooks.

You've gotta love the simplicity of how these pieces were designed. Functional and very sturdy! Now for the fun part... This finished looked so dry I assumed it would be quick work to sand it off. Quite a few hours later and lots of sandpaper, it was not going quite as fast as I'd planned. Still it was worth the effort.

Now for a new coat of stain, let dry, reassemble and voila! Ready for a few coats of fresh satin lacquer.

While I was working on the frame I had dropped the cushions and some new clothes off to my very professional upholstery freinds. Got the call they were ready just about the time I was finishing the last coats of lacquer. Perfect timing and a very nice finish to a fun project. This will be heading into the store very soon and ready for someone to adopt for their own!

Next on the "to do" list is a Heywood Wakefield M144 Kohinoor dresser that belong to the same customer I refinished a pair of nightstands for last year. If you have been following the blog for awhile you may remember these sadly abused pieces and the fun I had bringing them back.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6909174152211104663#editor/target=post;postID=5073129847349018226

One day I'll figure out how to link back with just a simple word or two. This will still get you back to the past if you have an interest...

The dresser is in slightly better shape and at least it doen't have the burn and ink/oil stains that the nightstands did. Still in pretty rough shape though!

I'm already a bit behind on this project, but I've got the first couple of sands down and should be starting the finishing soon! I'll post some after pics when I have this back up to speed...

As always thanks for taking a look and feel free to hit the follow tab if you have and interest in H/W or other MCM fun stuff...

Time to catch up a bit...Always something new and sometimes unusual in A Modern Line world...

I'm going to try and cover a few projects that have been in the works lately that some may find interesting:

First up is a mid-century modern bedroom set that I had initially passed up on a CL posting w/no pics. After contacting the seller for more information, I finally saw what was available and had some interest. Little too high for my budget awhile back, but still interesting...

In the meantime, I had a customer that was looking for a MCM king headboard with a bedroom set...Hmmm...maybe a match?

The headboard was advertised as a full/king. I've worked retail furniture for years and have never seen this animal! Full/queen. Sure. Full/King never! The set looked worth the hour drive to take a look, so off I go...

Here's a few pics of the set. I'd already removed some of the hardware for the re-do so you will have to use your imagination...

Here's the headboard as it came to me. This was originally meant to be used as shown, with the nightstands sitting in front of the drawered ends of the headboard. Strictly for a full size bed and after measuring at the sellers place found it to be about 16" too long for a king size. It would have looked totally strange with the extra 8" sticking out on each side if used for a king size bed. I'm an hour out of town with my trailer hitched and only some thrift stores between where I was and home and no solid prospects on filling either the truck or trailer. OK, even though I couldn't get the seller to budge much, I decided to pick. It only gets stranger from there.

The set consisted of the dresser, mirror, two nightstands, chest and headboard. Most of the pieces were in pretty good vintage condition. A few small veneer issues, but nothing major. The headboard was the main problem. I contacted my potential customer and explained the situation on the headboard. They loved the set but I needed to resolve the overly long headboard situation. Had to fit a king! Call me a bit crazy, but the only way to make this work was to carve about 16" out of the center of the piece and reassemble! I advised I would have to put some trim pieces in to cover the cuts and they came up with a great solution. How about some nice MCM diamond patterns... I liked the idea and the game is on...

First some reinforcement blocks...

Patient is prepped and prepared for surgury and we remove the suspect extra length and look to rejoin. Not as clean as I'd planned but acceptable...

My customer didn't have a problem with some center cuts on the shelf showing as they were likely to have something centered in the shelf anyway and the diamond pattern cover trim looked great...

Structurally very sound and the whole set has been delivered to their new home. Yup, they loved it all! Posting about their very sweet 1969 ranch later...

Next up is a really nice find for some lucky customer...A 1964 Kent Coffey dining room! I'm not sure if the Coffeys ripped off the Broyhill Brasilia line or the other way around, but this is one super nice set! I've personally found the Kent Coffey manufactured pieces to be just a bit better quality than the Broyhill pieces. They both worked out of Lenoir, NC and were certainly competitors. Anyone want to offer their opinion?

This set is in great condition and ready to take to a nice MCM home!

I've got to admit, I've made some errors in judgement in buying in the past and I'm hoping this is not one of them! A very nice couple stopped by the store the other day with a project piece(s) they had initially intended for a DIY project but ran out of steam and room to complete. Now I personally have more than enough DIY projects to keep me out of trouble for a long time, but...

Even though this sectional was sans it's original seat cushions, I just could not pass it up! Yes, it's going to have to be completely reupholstered even though the orange and gold brocade looks great, not good enough to put in the store...Have yet to find any manufacturing or design attribution but this is nearly 12 feet of 1950's swell! The good and bad news... I know my upholsterey pros can take care of this! They can bring this lovely piece back to it's glory. The bad news is the what it's going to cost...I'll keep you posted when it gets back up to speed...

I have a danish style sofa that's currently in progress for a total rehab that I'll post about sometime soon...Too many projects and too lttle time...

As always, thanks for taking a look...