1950’s Navy MCM Dresser

You should want to constantly stare at every piece of furniture in your home.  That’s how you know you love it.  It’s how you know you chose the right piece for you!  This navy MCM dresser was one of those furniture pieces for me.  I just want to stare at it.  It’s so stunning and the transformation was so spectacular that it amazes me.

I’m really hesitant to even post today’s furniture makeover because I really don’t want to part with this mid-century dresser, but if I didn’t sell the beautiful pieces, I wouldn’t be able to pay the grocery bill.  Aaaaahh…. I’m a little depressed, but it will be your gain.  So introducing the 1950’s Navy MCM dresser…

I found this dresser two years ago sitting on the sidewalk along with its taller sister.   You can tell it had been sitting in someone’s garage for many years and they finally decided to clean things out.  It was covered in cobwebs and dried leaves, but for a dresser of its age (1950’s) it was in really good shape.

Furniture with such clean lines has so much potential!  I immediately fell in love with the modern style and size – so much so that I refinished it to be a sideboard in our kitchen/dining room.  You can see more of that 1950’s Gray Ombre Dresser makeover here.

For more than two years, this sideboard has served us really well.   On most days there were baskets of fruits on top, during parties it became a drink station, and during holidays it was a place to showcase decorations.

Recently though, my sister-in-law stopped over the house. You see, we’ve both been in the process of re-painting parts of our houses.   I’ve been working on our kitchen/dining room and she was repainting her living room.  We’ve been back and forth to eachother’s homes a few times, trying to offer color suggestions to the other and help eachother see the spaces more clearly.

Our kitchen and dining room space is all one big open, connected space.  They’re really one large room.  It was as she was standing in this area that she gave me the most honest and helpful piece of advice.  She said, to me that I have many different styles going on in this same large, open space.  There are traditional kitchen cabinets and side tables, a modern farmhouse dining table and sideboard, and a mid-century sideboard in the dining area.

It’s true.  I love many different styles and don’t decorate to just one.  If I love a piece, I use it and I still think you have to love every item you choose to include in your home.  But maybe she had a point.  So many different styles was beginning to feel unbalanced and a little chaotic.

So to calm the space, maybe it was time the gray ombre mid-century modern sideboard found a new home. I was totally on-board with the idea because I had the perfect substitution already sitting in my workshop.  I’ll reveal that to you tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, the MCM dresser needed an update if I was going to sell it.  Since I’m on a navy blue craze right now, so you can guess the new color…. yes, navy blue.

To find the perfect blue, I brought  a piece of denim fabric to my local Benjamin Moore retailer where they color-matched the fabric.   As it turned out, Benjamin Moore Abyss was a perfect color match.  Abyss is a dark navy with a lot of black and and gray tones.  It’s actually a little more blue than it’s appearing on my Mac screen.  PC screens tend to be a little brighter.

I’ve been choosing to paint with enamels lately, but this was the first time trying a high-gloss.  I’ve avoided them in the past because Benjamin Mooore Advance semi-gloss paint (an alkyd) had such a long cure time and never really seemed to harden to the point where I trusted it not to be damaged.  But I’ve been working with DTM paint which hardens like a rock very quickly, so I decided to try a similar paint in a high gloss.

And I love it!

This shot of the twin bed I painted at the same time, shows the best example of the color and sheen.  I’ll reveal that bed later this week so be sure you’re signed up to receive these posts via email – you wont’ want to miss that one!

And now back to the MCM dresser.  A new camera is on my wish list.  The one I have just isn’t capturing the color, sheen, and gorgeousness (is that a word) of this MCM dresser.  It’s so much more amazing in person!

 

The handles are very cool and original to this 1950’s dresser.   They’re a combination of metal knobs and wood handles.

The six drawers are very large and have all been clear-coated inside.

 

The drawer-fronts also received a few coats of high-gloss enamel paint.

I really need to get a new outdoor rug for these photo shoots!  My black and tan rug went up on my outdoor deck since we’re getting ready to host my daughter’s graduation party.

Here’s another sneak peak of that bed, but looks even more amazing when set up with the footboard and side rails.

I’m really going to miss this dresser and hoping a family member or friend snatches it up so I can visit it once in while, so I’m offering them my friends/family discount.   Hope I don’t regret letting it go (sad face).   Aaaah…  OK…. I need to get over this.  I’ll post it for sale in my shop.

 

 

 

---

If you live in the Boston area and have solid wood furniture pieces that need an update, let’s talk about how paint or stain could transform them.  See this info on my custom furniture painting & staining services…

---

If you’d like to furnish your home for pennies, click the image below.

You’ll receive FREE, immediate access to my newest ebook:

I even reveal how I make my biggest profits flipping furniture!

 

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links to products I love and use myself.