Restoration Reveals Hidden Art Deco Design

It's been a good while since we've done a sideboard. You could also call this a server, or a bar cabinet perhaps. These were common in the Art Deco era, but we haven't seen one quite like this. The stain is kind of dark and drab, we do see that a lot. Look at these charming ball feet. We're really excited to get this old stain off to see what's underneath. Oftentimes such beautiful grain was hidden with this heavier opaque stain, kind of a shame. We're seeing lots of oak though. No identifying marks on the back. It does look like it used to have either a backsplash or a mirror. That's probably not substantial enough to support a mirror, so we're thinking a backsplash. Maybe held on with some dowels. Top is in okay shape. Really like these diagonal handles. There's a key escutcheon, a key mechanism, but somebody removed the inside portion of it. It was the same on both sides. Maybe they lost the key or just didn't want to deal with it. Liking these offset handles. Kind of a bold choice. The inside of this drawer, however, has that disgusting green felt. We've seen this before. It's kind of problematic. Really tough to get that up. It never lasted. We'll deal with that later. Can see that we need a drawer stopper also. That must have fallen out of the inside. We've got a little bit of a sticker left over, probably from a yard sale. Corner is chipped. This is all savable though. We're really looking forward to seeing the oak underneath. Got our dovetail joints. Drawer is in pretty good condition. No felt in this one, fortunately. And then we noticed these hardware caps. We've come to learn that these were from England. Oftentimes there will be a square nut underneath that on the back of the screw. And then we noticed these push pins. We had a couple of our viewers tell us these were common in England. Does anybody know about these? Do you know what they were used for? But after this clue and all of the likely English white oak, we're pretty sure this is an English cabinet. Good evening and thank you for allowing me to come into your living rooms. Welcome to Montford Boulevard. And thank you for allowing us to come into your living rooms. We're excited to get into this British cabinet today. But first I have something interesting to share. For a while now, I've been interested in adding some dynamic lighting to my living space. Today I'll finally get that opportunity thanks to Kaleifo. What I really like about these lights is they can be synced to work together. They're very customizable. I found the setup to be surprisingly easy. All of these products have a high quality feel to them. Snapping right in place there. They were packed really well also. It was really easy to set these up using the app. I was able to locate all of the devices in the room and quickly pair them. And here's the exciting part. There are so many different looks and moods. I was able to turn my environment into a living breathing space. There are dozens of looks and color patterns to choose from. And these lights were really responsive with the app. The most incredible aspect is the sync box that comes with the TV kit. The lights in the room will interact with whatever is on the TV screen for a truly immersive experience. It can make video games, movies, or music all the more interactive. It's really a surreal feeling. Check below for links to these amazing Kaleifo products. And use code ADF15 for 15% off. We're getting right into it here. First thing we're just going to have to go after that green felt. Get that out of there as soon as possible. This stuff tends to really hang on and leave a residue. Getting these dividers out should make it a little bit easier. It's such a relief to be getting this out of there. Yeah, that's better. Much better. We're going to remove these hardware caps here. As I mentioned, there's usually a square nut. So it's kind of interesting they're just covering up the traditional screw. Handles are in good shape fortunately. They look to be solid oak. I removed one of these drawers and look at this. The trim is solid oak as well. It's veneer in the center. But there are some really good pieces of wood in this furniture piece. And look, once again we've got the Art Deco math. It was such a common habit for people to do their calculations right on the furniture piece. Have you ever seen that before in Art Deco furniture? We catch it all the time. This trim is bowed out just a little bit. It was like that on both sides right by the hinges. And this curved piece of trim is loose as well. It's fortunate that's coming off because that will make sanding a lot easier. Just some little nails holding that on. Removing that trim gave us an idea. We might make something similar for the sides. Just to continue that aesthetic. Got that glue drying. We're looking at the back now. Where that possible backsplash was previously. Using our dowel kit. We'll chop that off and use a little bit of wood filler. Same for that chipped corner. We're really looking forward to seeing what's underneath this stain. We oftentimes wonder if there were some differences between the people that chose the wood for these pieces and the finishing department. Choice wood was selected oftentimes but then covered up with that dark stain. It's kind of a shame. Sanding these doors revealed some really interesting marks. They're fortunately bookmatched. These lighter streaks in the veneer. We actually think we like them and possibly it was a design choice. So much was hidden underneath that dark stain. We're adding a seal coat conditioner before we continue with lacquer on these handles. We want to very sparingly add black in our design. And we think these handles are going to just look a little bit more modern. A little bit more contemporary black. Got quite a bit of hand sanding to do. Prep is always the most lengthy part of these jobs. Really helps you to appreciate every detail though. You become well acquainted with these pieces. You can see a after and then before. You can already see some grain coming through in that beautiful ball foot. So we're so excited to get some finish on. These drawer stoppers were just these blocks sitting in the back. We had to add a couple but that's all it was. Continuing on with these drawers. We have a pre-stain conditioner. This just helps to kind of unify the wood. Gets rid of blotchiness. It's been giving us some pretty clean results recently. Feels so good to revive this English oak. All of that trim is solid wood. Very impressive. After that dried we have some golden oak oil stain. You can see that's just giving it a richer look. That's about what we're going for. It's just interesting how they would kind of unify all of the colors with that dark stain. It's so common in art deco furniture. So we didn't even get off all of that previous felt but enough to make it smooth. And this is black felt. Much more contemporary look. See how clean that is. We're going to add golden oak to those ball feet as well. Getting that beautiful end grain to show through. It's almost a crime that that was covered up with stain. Same thing adding golden oak to the top. Here's how it dried. So this is a piece that we cut off of a table previously. We've been holding on to it. We're thinking it could make a good backsplash. We'd like it to match the colors of the base. So we'll be working on that. We'll have to plug those holes of course. I'm going to take these metal cleats off of the shoes. We like to replace those with nylon glides. We've got those ball feet masked because we want to make the surrounding wood darker. We're using antique walnut gel stain. You can already see the separation. With some finish it will pop even more. Now this is black gel stain for these shelves. They're probably pined. But this is a nice trick to make simpler cheaper woods look better. You can always pull it back with mineral spirits if you need to. We darken those curved pieces just a bit as well. Getting those drawer dividers back in place now. We've also coated those with the black felt. Fortunately those all popped back in just fine. Working on the hinges and hardware now. We'll get the old coating removed. And a fresh coat of gold lacquer. We're moving into the finish on the main cabinet now. Again using this seal coat product. It just helps the lacquer to go on a bit smoother. Helps it adhere better as well. Time to go back to that backsplash. We've got those holes plugged and filled. And we're coming up with a design choice for the center of the backsplash. Got a couple of these half round pieces. If they match the lights and darks of the cabinet we think that might be a nice addition. We're going to stain just the face of it. Turns out this piece is solid walnut that we're using for the backsplash. Got some touch-up to do here. Using the lacquer powders. First we're going to get the base color. Then we'll come in with some of the lights. But a visitor. Look who it is. Our favorite bulldog. Francis tried to lick the camera there as usual but I'm ready for it. Our good friend Francis. So we're using the existing curved patterns and we're going to make ones for the side. Tracing them here. They will need to be chopped a bit shorter but this is a good starting point. Little interruption here. We've got a delivery going out. Hi. Thank you. Male lady walked right into the shot. Always welcome at Montford Boulevard. The set that we're shipping out is this tray top 1920s nightstand set. Really one of the more unique nightstand sets we've ever worked on. Kind of sad to see it go but we're just ready for the next project. Excited to move on. So the goal is to get these side pieces to match the other ones. Need them a bit darker. This is the backsplash. Spraying a mohawk product called background. It's that beige color. We're basically making walnut look like oak. Brushing in some wood grain effects now. These are the doors. We decided to frame them in black. Just a very thin strip along the trim. There's so much beautiful oak and we think this will just help frame it like so. Getting close to the finish line. Putting these hinges back on and everything is feeling fresh and new. We're using both Titebond II and two-part epoxy to adhere the original trim. It was glued on before. We'll add a couple of nails as well. Let that dry. We're going to put the original hardware caps back on. We don't know where to find these in the U.S. So we cleaned them up. We're clipping off these nails. These are brass escutcheon pins. Using it for that key escutcheon. Just for look. Here's a preview at how the doors are coming together. Isn't that exciting? And here's that side curved trim that we custom made. We reversed the angle of it. That's a look at what we're going for. Measuring for center and here's that little pattern that we designed. You can see the colors are closer to the cabinet now. Attaching the backsplash and these are the final steps. Dropping the original shelving back in place. We have a policy here. We don't stop working on these pieces until we love them. And you know what? I think we're there. Stepping back to look at the finished piece. There was so much dynamic grain hiding beneath all of that stain. Designs, patterns. It's just refreshing to see it all as it originally was. It's a trip back in time to reveal all of this original wood grain. One more look at the before. We were immediately impressed with the design of this piece. Hopefully our choices will bring even more dignity to the original vision. Thank you so much for watching until the end. As of publishing time this furniture piece is still available. We'll be back again soon with another Art Deco Furniture Restoration Remake project. But you're welcome back here at Montford Boulevard anytime.