American Empire Conversion: Tumble-Down Dresser to Smart Buffet

As I have mentioned before, these old Empire dressers are ubiquitous. And, age does not mean value every time. Since this one was in such terrible condition inside, it wasn't worth rebuilding and trying to restore.

It was, however, worth sharpening my skills and creativity to make something new out of it.

A buffet came to mind: keep the top drawers and make a new open space out of the bottom.

The bottom drawer sides, the actual supports for the drawers on the runners, were so worn down that each drawer had to be lifted into the frame to close it, causing chipping to the face veneer. The drawer sides would all need to be replaced (dovetails and all), which was not going to happen. The drawer supports (I call them runners) had all been poorly replaced sometime in the past, as you can see from the back (which was also missing).

There were no dividers between the drawers anymore, so the soft old wood dust was raining down on whatever was stored in the drawer below every time they were opened or closed. The drawer bottoms were falling out from shrinkage and expansion over the years.

So, I gutted the insides. A few whacks with the hammer and the drawer runners came right out.

No regrets.

The newly freed open space got a lining of new wood, filled and sanded.

I remembered some hardware I bought at a picker's paradise in Pennsylvania called Shupp's Grove.

They were very old, stamped metal shield pulls. These pulls, and the stiff, upright nature of the piece's side columns, inspired a military/nautical style paint treatment, using navy, white and gold. Like so: