A Tale of Two Coco Pieces

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us . . ."

If Charles Dickens can write about two cities, then I can write about two Coco pieces.

(Not that I'm comparing myself to Charles Dickens.)

It all started with this little nightstand.

Remember this little guy from my previous post about stripping wood furniture? Once the top was refinished, I painted the body in Coco Chalk Paint® and highlighted some of the details with Dark Soft Wax.

The handles were in great shape, so I left them alone.

The warm wood top was a perfect compliment to Coco.

So that's the first piece.

Enter piece number two - a heavy mahogany dresser I picked up from a woman I met on Craig's List. She's downsizing leading up to her retirement in a few years, so she offloaded quite a few pieces into my willing hands.

(I had to laugh while I was developing my photos for this post. I think it's silly to watermark this one because I took it on my iPhone in very poor light. I highly doubt anyone will steal this photo and pass it off as their own, however I needed a before photo so this had to do.)

The top had some damage to it but I could see beautiful potential underneath the original finish.

It had some really nice details on the sides

and gorgeous handles. The wheat stems reminded me of Fall, which made me happy.

There was also a curious label on the inside of the top drawer.

I couldn't make out what the label said because parts of it had come off, so I thought I'd give Google a try. I typed in "exposed structural plywood genuine mahogany association" and got a bit of a history lesson.

(Eight Hundred is all about furniture with a story.)

"Mahogany furniture dating from 1936 to the mid-1950’s often carries a Mahogany Association label. The Association issued two types of labels: a Blue Label indicated a veneer of genuine mahogany; a Red Label that guaranteed the piece was made of solid genuine mahogany. Both the blue and red label included a number for a specific furniture manufacturer." Source

My label was blue, which indicated mahogany veneer. My manufacturer number was 160, which belonged to Drexel in Drexel, North Carolina.

Who doesn't love a good history lesson?

Now that I knew where the piece was from, I had to decide what to do with it.

Last week in the shop, I met a sweet woman named Sue. She was on the hunt for a dresser for her son. After we got to talking, we decided that my mahogany dresser would be the perfect piece. At first, we decided on Graphite Chalk Paint® with a refinished wood top.

After some stripping and some Dark Soft Wax, here's how it turned out. Don't you just love that marbling pattern along the sides? That white damage spot is long gone.

Now that's more like it!

When it came to the body, I tried Graphite Chalk Paint® but it didn't prove to be a good match for the wall color in her son's bedroom.

I sent Sue a photo of my Coco nightstand to see what she thought of that color combination, and she loved it so much she bought the nightstand too.

Boo to the yah!

So without further ado, I present the newly painted Coco mahogany dresser.

I staged this handsome guy with some candlesticks and one of my lanterns from Decor Steals. My 1935 copy of "Streams in the Desert" happily sat in the middle, gently opened up to a devotional as if the owner put it down for a moment to go ponder its contents.

I think that Coco proved to be just the trick again.

I kept the original handles and gave them an update with some Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.

So there you have it - the tale of two Coco pieces that are now happily resting in their new home.

I'll leave you with Dickens again:

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

I think this dresser now has a far, far better look than it has ever had.