I came across this dresser at an auction a few months ago, it's been sitting around in my studio collecting dust and storing my t-shirts haha…available here. I recently finished up some other projects and decided it was time to finish(refinish) this bad boy. It's a stunning gentleman's dresser from the Broyhill Brasilia line of furniture, circa the 1960’s. It was in pretty good shape aside from a few light scratches, chipping finish and loose veneer.
BEFORE
AFTER
I ended up refinishing all 4 sides (front, Top, and two sides). I did not have to do the drawers of the cabinet doors. I did however repair a veneer chip on one drawer.
Here is the veneer repair I did on the drawer. You need to find some matching veneer, nothing will ever match perfectly but get as close as you can, color and grain wise, it's better to go lighter to be safe. Use a piece of tape to get the shape of the repair piece needed, if the chip is an odd shape, you can cut the veneer to an easier shape, I recommend not doing squares, angles will help disguise the repair.
I sanded off the finish on the drawer front, it came off easily, I used 180 grit then 220, be careful not to go through the veneer. I then used general finish antique walnut gel stain on the veneer which will help blend the wood together and it matches the rest of the dresser. Once dried, I used a spray lacquer and applied several coats.
This is what the drawer looks like now!
The next repair i did was repairing the separating veneer. If you look closely at the picture to the right, you can see how the veneer layer is separating from the rest of the dresser. The fix for this is simple: I started with a needle I got from a nurse, you can get these at your local woodworking store or order online here.
Put some glue in the syringe and insert the needle under the veneer. Once you out enough glue in, you want to clamp the veneer to the rest of the dresser. Don't for get to clean up the glue squeeze out!
Here is the veneer clamped up
On the top, sides and face, I used a combination of a card scraper, curved card scraper and sand paper to remove the finish, it came off fairly easy with the card scraper and for the tougher parts I used 180 grit sand paper on my random orbital sander. Once I had all the finish removed, I cleaned the wood with my air hose and used the same walnut stain to match the drawers. The General Finishes Antique Walnut gel stain is the best stain that many people recommend to match the factory Broyhill Brasilia color.
I applied the stain using a foam brush, once the surface was completely covered, going with the grain, I wiped it off with a paper shop towel. On these older mid century pieces, often times they will use a thin veneer on the large faces and then use a stained light wood, beech, oak ect for the solid pieces like between the drawers and the base/legs. For those pieces, I left the stain on those prices a little longer before I wiped them off to dry.
The brass pulled needed some work. While the stain was drying and i had the drawers out of the dresser, I removed the brass pulls and took them to the wire wheel and brushed off the lacquer and other gunk that was on them, once the color was uniform, I replied some lacquer to preserve the color and help prevent future tarnish. when you are working with brass, be careful how you polish these, if there is lacquer on them, it needs to be removed before you use any sort of Brasso or other polish.
Once all the repairs were made, stain was dry, I used Minwax lacquer stray semi gloss and applied about 5 coats to the piece. after the first 2 coats (applied within 15 mins) i waited over night before i put the rest of the coats on. I knocked the lacquer back with 4/0 steel wool in between dried coats. I then let the final coats cure for about 48 hours. i then put the drawer pulls back on and put the drawers and doors back on the dresser.
I'm super happy how this thing turned out!!
This is a Rare Broyhill Brasilia Dresser and is currently available on the shop tab. If this is the piece you have been looking for, feel free to reach out and get a shipping quote!
