From The Fire

The following is a story of a burn victim. A victim that suffered second and third degree burns. The victim is neither human nor animal.

In this case, the victim is a piece furniture.

On occasion, we come across furnishings that were unfortunate enough to be overcome by the flames of a house-B-Que.

Like so many items discarded by previous owners, we found this fella awaiting disposal to the local landfill. Upon close inspection, we determined a rescue was in order.

Judging from the condition of the original finish, it appeared as if the fire was hot enough to melt the finish, and the finish may have even caught fire just before being extinguished. With out a doubt, the piece suffered heavy smoke damage.

With this fella back at the shop, the task of resurrecting the phoenix from the flames began. The fire did most of the hard work of loosening up many layers of paint, varnish and stains. Still, it took a lot of sanding with grits ranging from 40 to 400 to whip the desk back into shape.

Because the original top wore a skin of thin wood veneer, and the underlying top was constructed of laminated planks, we elected to apply a water borne industrial enamel from Sherwin Williams in satin black after stripping of the veneer.

Additionally, we noticed the drawer faces did not match well with the wood used to create the shell. The drawer faces were painted to match the top. Doing so helped  to add a little extra flare to the final appearance.

After a little rehabilitation and refinishing, the addition of the original wood pulls on the drawers accented the black satin nicely. 

Our new piece is black satin and dark walnut, and if you look close enough, you can see on the inner side panel where we left some of the smokey patina. We did this effect on both inner panels, and both outer panels for effect, and as a reminder of what this little fella went through.