02/07/2026
Before and after pictures of 1930-1940 Art Deco waterfall four drawer chest. I took all the original pulls off and clean thoroughly, which lead me to find they were not solid brass, researched, and found they were actually made from cast zinc and painted the brass color. They actually have the original Bakelite inserts, which is considered to be the first fully synthetic plastic. I taped them off and repainted and they came out amazing! It took some elbow grease to get her cleaned up and quite a few pieces of wood veneer that were peeling on this one and scuffs and scratches to repaire. I lightly sanded used a product called Howard’s Restore-A-Finish with Howard’s Feed-N-Wax and then Minwax Paste wax to seal the finish. I had to glue and clamp several of the drawers and then used orange oil to clean and recondition the wood, which smells amazing! I lined the drawers with a happy floral vinyl wallpaper from Amazon. I was also able to save the original wheels so this heavy piece of furniture can be rolled around. It’s not perfect, but what do we expect from a piece of furniture that’s almost 100 years old?