Stunning Antique Black Bow Front Highboy – Take Two!

Stunning Antique Black Bow Front Highboy – Take Two!

Several years ago, I purchased a beautiful antique bow front mahogany highboy. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to paint it so I set it aside for a while until I came up with an idea. I took it to Not So Shabby and it sold right away.

Fast forward to a few months ago. I was stocking paint at that same location and needed a screw driver. I ran back to grab one when I got a glimpse of a nice dresser in one of the other vendor’s booths. My first thought was ~ wow, that’s a really cool piece!

I popped in and out of the storage room and went whizzing back up front when a 2nd glance stopped me dead in my tracks. I was like whaaa? I was like huh?? No wonder it caught my attention, it was my piece. Well, not really ~ I didn’t own it anymore ~ but it was my artistic flare, my idea, my design.

I had originally painted it in CeCe Caldwell’s Vermont Slate. The VS appeared more blue than I remembered but the drawers still looked great. The strange thing was how beat up the legs were, almost as though someone dragged it across a sidewalk. There was also a teeny wear mark on the top that bugged me. How did that happen? Where had this dresser been? Did that vendor buy it from me the first time or did someone buy it and then move out-of-town and sell it?

It was priced lower than what a solid mahogany bow front dresser goes for in this area at and all it needed was a little TLC so I bought it back to do a quick flip. Yeah, right ~ like that ever happens.

I was JUST going to fix that TINY LITTLE spot on the top but before I knew it, I had slathered a thick coat of stripper all over the top. You know, for that tiny spot the size of pea. The ad rep. never noticed the thick, green, gooey gel on the highboy before she landed her purse and 3 ring binder on top of it. OOPS!

That was a real joy to clean up.

I eventually got back to the dresser and finish stripping the top.

Wow, what beautiful Mahogany!

I also HAD to repaint the entire body of the piece to give it a more rich color and to repair the scrapes on the legs. Easy right? Right!

As long as you’re in a workshop working without interruptions.

That seldom happens in our studio. Between paint deliveries, paint shipments, customers, phone calls, emails…, there’s rarely a solid chunk of time to work on a piece. I stopped and started this dresser about seven times but because days and weeks lapsed in between, I kept forgetting which color I had used.

Lincoln’s Hat, Cannonball, Freedom Road

I kept messing with it until I had everything the way I wanted. I don’t think there was a part I didn’t touch.

I waxed everything with except the top which I sealed with American Paint Company’s Hard Coat.

I prefer to apply Hard Coat with a sponge, but on this particular piece, I wanted to imitate the cross hatch marks on the front so I brushed it on in both directions to create linen weave.

It’s all fixed up and ready for its new owner. I loved this piece the first time. I love it even more now and if for any reason it doesn’t sell, it will fit perfectly at the top of our staircase.

Blog post and photos courtesy of Shizzle Design LLC