Thrift Store Rescue #8 / Mid Century Furniture Restoration 

I'm excited to announce that I will now be posting Patreon exclusive videos on my Patreon page! I'll still be posting videos here on RU-vid just as I always have but I will also be posting exclusive videos to Patreon. These exclusive videos are a way for me to say Thank You to the patrons that support me there. If you'd like to become a patron, the link is www.patreon.com/dashnerdesign . Thank you!

Straight to the point, No unnecessary background music, lots of things to learn from. This is what quality content looks like. Subscribed!

Love that you don’t have loud music and I can hear the real sounds......... new subbie

Bless you for NOT painting it with chalk paint and distressing it in a "chippy" finish.

This is like the Bob Ross of furniture restoration. Soothing and mesmerizing.

We all live a frantic paced, over loaded, over stimulated, single use, throw away life so it's not surprising that people have responded very well to your videos. Your whole demeanour says 'Hey let's slow down for a bit and mediate on one task with care and with honour for what others have made with their hands and hearts. Well done Mr. Dashner .

A side-by-side Before and After view would be great on the end of the video. Very impressive work.

I wish you could include the lists of the product you used on the description. that would be really nice

I respect u 3000 for not playing any music in the background

I have no idea why I'm here, but I am instantly calmed and feel like I can do this

I love the way these somewhat nondescript little furniture pieces acquire such a dignity and presence through the restoration process. Great work.

You have a relaxing voice. You should read audio books for a living if the whole furniture restoration thing doesn't work out. 😊

sell it as a record cabinet rather than a night table might help the value

If someone were to build this cabinet for a client today, the price would be many hundreds of dollars... probably in the realm of $550-$650. I've never understood why older furniture loses value simply because of its age. Great restoration!

You make this look so easy, I feel like I could do something like this myself even though I've never refinished furniture before.

Great tutorial! Thank you! I sense there are a lot of introverts who watched this, and we appreciate the LACK of music, and your calm voice. I bet you are an introvert, too! And yes, you COULD do voiceover work!

If I ever won the lottery and was a multimillionaire... this is what I would do. I'd buy/collect good old furniture that needed TLC and I would lovingly restore it, and then give it away to someone in need.

It’s so satisfying watching you turn something old and damaged into something new and beautiful again! Gorgeous job. ❤️

I used to repair furniture while working in a furniture store when I was in high school. On that ring I would have wet it down, place a wet towel over it and used a hot iron to try and raise the grain so that you could sand it down to an even level.

Beautiful restoration job. Using walnut stain is not as dark as it shown on the label. After wiping off the excess, it looks medium tone. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Nice job. Wood looks like Teak, especially base. Difficult to find solid Teak furniture now. Newer pieces are all laminate. Love Mid-Century/Danish. Thanks for sharing.

Great words of wisdom at the beginning, a lot of people seem to think the road to restoration is paved with gold. You have to know what you are doing both restoration and business wise to make any real money. Your restoration here was very nice indeed, well done.

Just found this channel. What a wonderful calm video! I mean no distracting music - just that nice calm voice and pace. Loved it.

I am so glad someone is saving this Mid-Century modern furniture.

great video, no frivolous banter, no annoying music, just clear information

kind of wish you listed everything you used somewhere.

I have a couple of vintage sewing cabinets that I've been thinking about refinishing, this video had given me the confidence to start the project!

Hi. Really like your videos. I‘m from Germany. Could you link the products you use with timestamps in the Description of your videos? This would help very much...

I love your simple straightforward narration. Your finished product is beautiful.

Who needs Netflix when I have this guy, this is so Zen to watch . He is the Bob Ross of furniture …. I will stay home on the weekends for this content …..who needs to go out?

I much prefer a restoration over a reinvention....Thanks for bringing this piece to it's former glory.

It's clear this is a labor of love and not profit motivating you. We are definitely the beneficiaries of your dedication to your craft.

It’s a mid-century, early 60s record cabinet. Would definitely sell for more than $120!

I enjoy the ongoing commentary explaining every step in a calming voice. Good Job!

I live in an area in which many elderly people go from large houses to retirement homes or nursing homes. They can’t take all of their furniture, and many of them or their people send the nice furniture to consignment shops. I just moved here and was told by my realtor to check a local shop or two. Well, i was astonished at the prices. I bought three lovely wild black cherry Henkel Harris tables for less than $500 total. I ended up furnishing my new place with beautiful solid wood furniture for a fraction of the cost of shabby new stuff. I had no idea such a resource existed. The store I used is very picky about what they take, and everything is immaculate and safe to use. There is one additional expense, however....getting heavy wood furniture moved from the store to home. I was smitten with the pieces and spent the extra, and still came out ahead. Before you buy veneer pasted onto mdf, you might want to check around. I still can’t believe my good luck!

I live in a mid century modern house with a TON of wood. Some is good, but other parts (doors/closets/baseboards/built in) need some love. I came across this and while its not exactly what I need, I stayed and watched the whole video. Nice work!

I rarely subscribe. Every tutorials should be like this! Simple, no annoying ass backround music, informative and straight up no bs unlike my ex. lol

Your videos give me such peace and insight, I hope you know how much your viewers enjoy your work.

Beautiful work. I have a pair of 80s speakers that I wanted to restore the veneer on and wasn't even sure if it could be sanded lightly. This video helps immensely.

great result, every time you don't over paint the furniture I breath a sigh of relief

Just discovered your channel. Enjoy it. I am part of a furniture reinvent store. We sell a lot of furniture. I spray paint many if my cabinet interiors. It help with sales very much. Always clean the hardware. If finish is bad spray black satin paint to hardware.

I like the way you narrate your video. Looking forward to see other videos on redoing furniture. You did good on this piece.

Nicely done, minimal restoration to revive an old piece and keep it out of the dumpster. very well done and informative thanks for sharing.

Enjoyed this informative video, and your great, laid back, presentation style. Just wanted to mention that in many mid century pieces, the difference in timber colour between base and top was intentional, for aesthetic reasons, and to highlight the shape of the base.

Not everyone has a shop for this kind of work but still wants to restore furniture pieces that were made the old fashioned way. Mine was made by my grandfather. Thank you for posting this.

Thanks for the step-by-step tutorial. I can see you’ve had many trial and error’s in the past that’s why you felt confident knowing that you’re stains would conceal most of that ring and the filler.

I did a very similar project & came out not as nice as yours! I did not use your stripping agent & metal scotch pad. Very smart & simple way to get to wood. & voice very relaxing too!

Always nice to see true furniture restoration. 👍🏻 It makes me sick to so many beautiful pieces of vintage furniture out there coated in bad paint.

I actually liked the two toned colour of the piece. The dark on the top and the light base. Great restoration. ❤️

I worked my way through college buying old roll-top desks (which were hot at the time) and refinishing them. I miss it, as it is so satisfying taking something old and of good quality and giving it new life.

I love how much you respect you project. This is beautiful.

You did good on this piece. I would say you likely put a much better finish on it then it ever had to begin with. I love when I do that!

I like the verbal explanation as you work. I will be watching more and subscribing

Your gel stain matches your walnut stain so dang well. Good job.

Gosh I would have definitely paid more than $125 for that beautiful piece. The care alone is worth triple that!! 👍🏽👍🏽

So you’re a makeup artist for wood. That’s cool. 😀

I always think it's so wasteful how people get rid of furniture when it looks tired, or they're bored of it. Great to see you bring this piece back to life such that someone will really want it again.

Love how it turned out. So pretty and neat and clean.

Excellent video as always. I ought to get out there, and restore that old end table, now that spring is finally here.

I got some similar furniture and u gave me a good idea on what to do on my weekends now. Great video thanks for sharing.

I made jewelry and other crafts for years and people just did not want to pay what things were worth, especially if you live in a back woods place like I do. Northern Ontario. I was sure if I lived in a large city centre I could have got the price my things deserved. Now I just make things for family and friends and the love of the craft. If you sold that piece for that small amount that is not much of a profit at all. People need to understand the cost of materials, transportation, time etc. Best of luck and hopeful for the "Big Find." It's out there somewhere.

Love your pragmatic approach, and you can't argue with the results.

New here. Have to say, you have a voice and speech pattern *perfect*for*this*... Awesome editing, filming, voiceover. Super piece!! Thanks, wish I could buy it, have been looking for something like it in my area.

Very nice work. Wish I were so talented. My furniture basically gets some Old English and some wax. It turned out great, I do hope you got what you needed for it.

You are so right about finding matching nightstands

I couldn't sleep. Thank you - your voice is really reassuring and this was as educational as it was calming! That's a beautiful project! Well done

I skimmed through just to see what this was all about but by the end I went back and watched the whole thing again. Very nice.

Thanks for a fantastic video. Getting ready to refinish a walnut dining table we found at a thrift shop and this was exactly the inspiration we needed. Nice job!

First MCM restoration I’ve seen in ages where the piece was NOT painted with a spray gun. Thank you for taking your time and honoring the wood grain.

Ive been watching all of your videos lately as I've been interested in getting into wood restoring projects. I've got this old painted coffee table in my storage shed that I'm dying to eventually take out, strip, and refinish into a beautiful piece of furniture

I find this incredibly calming. Nice information, wonderful voice, nothing stressful. Beautiful piece of furniture Too !!/:)

You did a beautiful restoration, plus you must have the patience of a saint!

Job well done. Great informative video with not a lot unnecessary chatter. One of the better diy videos I've seen on youtube. Keep'em coming.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I enjoyed the clean delivery, not too busy ie distracting comments, noise, nor fumbles. Just precise language uniform to the application of steps. 🖌️🎨🖌️PERFECT 🎨🖌️🎨

Your videos are so good! I’m doing my first ever furniture refinishing, an old mahogany cabinet that was painted orange! I’m following your steps and finding it very “Zen” to bring it back to it’s original beauty. Thanks so much for your instructions. 👍

I wasn't sleepy but after this video I'm much more relaxed 😄 thanks guy

I can see why this wouldn't make a lot of money. It's a lot of work, and I think I'd do it only if I was looking for a piece for myself or found something at a thrift shop I really liked but that needed refinishing. It's pretty satisfying to watch, though. I like seeing things reclaimed.

Lovely work - and I'd proudly have that cabinet in my house to sit a record player (turntable) on the top, and keep the LPs (records) inside it (which was it's original purpose I think).

Okay RU-vid, I finally watched that video you've been recommending to me for like a year now. And yeah, it was good. Sometimes I just resent you being right about what I might like.

I agree with all the love in the comments. No loud intrusive music=check, calming relaxing voice=check, Bob Ross of Furniture Restoration=check. I have no idea how I got here but glad I was here.

If I lived near you I'd buy that thing in a new york minute! Love the finish; great job!

Nice job! Thank you for helping to explain the different uses between regular stain vs gel stain. I've recently started my own little youtube channel and spend a lot of my time checking our your channel and the channels of others of my mentors for tips and points an quality work!

How lucky are you to have such a gratifying skill. Great vid. It looks beautiful!

Great informative video. No loud intro music. No unnecessary info. Just pure knowledge. Cheers.

I was researching fixing scratches and came across this video. Wow very impressive work and the narration was very clear. You're very talented and hope people appreciate salvaging vintage furniture instead of just painting it or buying new lesser quality.

Definitely worth at least $250. Beautiful work

Sir, your voice is incredibly soothing.

Omg, how have I not found this till now. This is so relaxing!

you chose such a pretty stain color. nice little cabinet. some folks are buying and altering cabinets like that for small dog beds / indoor "houses."

Very well done. As a guy who's refinished many many pieces of furniture over the past 53 years, including several pianos and organs, perhaps I can help you with that circle. When I run into this I will try using a liquid stripper as opposed to the paste stripper and I use by dipping 4-0 steel wool in it and use it like a sponge. It seems to lift it out a bit more. Perhaps you could try it next time you tackle something like this. Also Your staining technique is top notch. I've never seen anyone do it this way but I intend to do it very soon when I tackle my current project (a 1920 player piano) and see how it goes. I liked it very much. Pianos are like this table and almost always veneered with something different than the base wood. I've seen people sand right through the veneer many times. Another point, when I use the 4-0 wool with the liquid stripper, I'll wash the entire piece off like this to remove any residue and/or old finish. It gives me a clean base to begin sanding. It may not be necessary with an old table like this one, but it seems to help a lot. I also use mineral spirits afterwards like you to sort of neutralize the stripper before a stain or finish it. Unless the surface is very rough, I get by using a 220 grip in the orbital right from the start - especially if the veneer is questionable. Prior to finishing, I'll go over it with synthetic steel wool to smooth out the grain even more. For woods like red oak that are open grain, I use a squeegee technique to fill in the "valleys" between the grain. I'll apply a heavy coat of finish (in most case, polyurethane) and immediately use a squeegee to remove it. I do this about 3 times or so to build up those "valleys" so they're flush with the rest of the surface. Then I apply a spray coat of poly, let it dry, use synthetic wool on it lightly, another spray coat, repeat wool, and then on to 4 or 5 coats with a foam brush. Don't scrimp on the foam brush either. The cheap ones have a more course foam in them and will leave streaks and air bubbles. The better one are more finer and leave a smooth surface much easier with fewer air bubble. I avoid foam brushes from places like Wally-world. When I've competed the finishing, I will use a special carnuba wax with Indian Sand in it. I don't let it dry or haze over either. As soon as I apply it, I rub it out with the best ever rag - old jeans (clean denim). You have to work hard to get it rubbed out but it'll further smooth the surface to a fine luster. The final waxing is with a clear furniture was and then I buff it with a jeans (denim) rag mounted on my buffer. You can comb your hair in it when you're done. Make sure if you use the old denim that it's clean and the seams are cut out of it. Just use the smooth cloth only. Lacquer is easier to use but not as tough as poly. Lacquer is nice because each coat will 'melt' into the previous one where poly will lay on top. That's why you need to be careful with poly or you sand through the newest layer into the one underneath and leave a mark and end up removing it entirely and start over. Synthetic steel wool helps prevent this. If you have to sane between coat, use something like 320 grit lightly. I hope I helped in some way but you're obviously talented in this already. Maybe this old guy passed something along. Thanks for the super video! You done good!

I've been mulling over taking on a mini wardrobe/cabinet restoration project, I'm taking you uploading this video as a sign to do it. Hopefully I can get it half as nice as yours.

Please wear a respirator when spraying :) Seriously, the dust mask does zero while a good respirator with a chemical filter will actually protect you lungs. Beautiful restoration!

Man, that was amazing, you certainly taught me lesson on restoring a piece of furniture. I had to watch it several times to pinpoint how everything was done. Thank you for sharing your expertise.

Thank you for this. I've got a dresser in a similar condition and built using a similar style. This was a great overall roadmap for what I may need to do to restore it!

Beautiful job! I’ve learned so much from you about restoration.

I would buy it in a second. Fabulous work as always

This looks absolutely beautiful. I'm not even into dark stain and I have to confess that watching you put that rich dark beautiful color onto this faded old furniture is incredibly satisfying.

I love it. Great job on making the bottom match the walnut. The curves on the bottom are the best, they make it look like more than a plain box.

Just watched this video! Starting a project this week for the first time ever. Glad I found this super helpful! Thank you!

honestly this channel is inspiring, i love watching all these videos.