Linnéa : A long time ago I got a very ugly side table that was missing its drawer. I didn't like the height of it so the first thing I did was to cut the legs and after sandpapering, I painted it green.
 What we really needed in the house was a stool where you can sit and put your shoes on. So I made a seat with an exclusive fabric called " Satara ", to make the stool look a little more chic. I nailed it to the wood with tacks and after that nothing more was done for some months. The reason was the drawer! I just couldn't find a good one that fitted and in the end I just made one out of a old drawer that I had to undo and redo completely!
 And finally we have a stool standing next to the front door and spreading a little indian light ( Satara = city in India Maharashtra ).

Caroline:

A gift from the family was so badly smothered with dark dark varnish that the beautiful personality of this set of drawers was lost.

I removed the varnish by sanding and the lumpy black paint off the drawer knobs by soaking them in vinegar and I found an amazing oak veneer underneath. I would have kept the oak veneer if it had been possible to get all the old varnish out of the wood grain but that proved impossible without damaging the veneer or using a lot of poisonous paint strippers - which I want to avoid.

After undoing I then redid the body with 2 different colours of stain.  For the drawers themselves I chose teak (a tropical hardwood)  and for the body a black walnut stain which is a dark chocolate brown. I also stained the insides of the drawers and dressed the bottom of the drawers with moss green paper covered by a sheet of thick plastic. These can easily be removed so the drawer can be dusted and the plastic can be cleaned. Very practical and looks elegant in my opinion. I love how one now can see the wood grain through the stain, it looks so much more alive. What do you think?

Click on a picture below to see full gallery of before and after photos: