Vintage Eggplant Henredon Dressers: Spanish Revival Revived
A lot of mediterranean design went on in the 1970's.
Chunky, clunky, and massive seemed to be the look of the day, with a reference to Spanish style motifs and patterns. Many companies made these Spanish revival pieces, but not all of them withstood the test of time.
Now, 40+ years later, the good ones, like Henredon, are ready for their makeovers.
This Henredon Alvarado set, found at a thrift store, was really well treated over the years and functioned just like new. The finish, however, would never see the inside of a modern room. Scuffed, scraped, scratched, speckled, yellow-brown, and sporting super ugly, chunky hardware, it needed to be revived. The before, as usual, looks a whole lot better in photos:
Now for the fun part.
What to do? Eggplant seemed to be the best color--dramatic, modern, edgy. The wood tri-foil motifs would stay, but the hardware needed to go. I designed some laser-cut wood quatrefoils to echo the tri-foil design, and searched for weeks for the kind of hardware that would be eye-catching but not conflicting to go on top of them. The quatrefoils painted metallic pewter, like the pewter hand twisted ring pulls (each one is different), brought the zing I was looking for. To tie it in, the bases of the pieces, under the bottom molding, are painted metallic pewter, as well.
Vintage Henredon Gothic Alvarado Mediterranean Eggplant Violet Purple Dresser
In the evenings, the purple looks almost black. In the sunny daytime, it brightens up. It's really a dramatic difference, this makeover, and makes me want to keep them. They are for sale, however, in my Etsy shop. Thanks for reading, and, as always, I appreciate your comments!
Abstract bird painting by me. Pear painting by Domi Willliams. Follow me on facebook!