An Amateur Uses Restor-A-Finish

I love mid-century furniture and I own a decent amount of it. I do not repair mid-century furniture. I leave that to the professionals. But our Broyhill Sculptra dresser had some scratches on it and I wanted to see if I could do anything about it.

They were covered by a runner over the top of the dresser and I figured, worst case scenario, I do a little damage and put the runner back on covering everything again. Best case scenario, we don't need the runner any more.

Here's what it looked like before:

From a distance, you can tell it's seen better days and someone left a drink on it for too long. So I went looking for a product to help. With a name drop from Mad Men set decorator Amy Wells and the folks at A Modern Line, I figured I'd try Restor-A-Finish.

Here's what it looks like now:

It was a best case scenario. We no longer need a runner and from a distance most of the scratches have almost disappeared. 

The photos don't show it, but the parts of the dresser that weren't damaged also look 100% times better. The shine is back in the wood, the grain really pops and overall it looks like the dresser just rolled off the factory line.

Taking a closer look, the water damage / cup ring has totally disappeared.

Before:

After:

The large but medium depth scratch has almost faded into the background

Before:

After:

The big, deep scratch still shows, but only if you're looking for it

Before:

After:

And the so deep there's no way you expect it to ever look good again scratch, wouldn't get a second glance if you walked by it. But if you stop and stare, you'll still see it.

Before:

After:

The above pics are from so close my camera had trouble focusing. So they're a bit over dramatic and show more flaws than most people will see. 

I can fully understand why people love Restor-A-Finish. Moving forward, even vintage piece of furniture I buy will get the Restor-A-Finish treatment before it comes inside. And that's my big amateur-user note, if you can, use Restor-A-Finish outside. It stinks.

The other pointer is, don't try to do just a part of your piece. For example, the top of a Broyhill Sculptra dresser. Once you're done it will no longer match the rest of the wood because it looks so much better and fresher. You'll need to wipe down the whole piece. Luckily Restor-A-Finish is fairly idiot proof. I accidentally left it on for far too long and nothing bad happened. So doing a whole piece isn't too hard.

And if you're restore Broyhill Sculptra furniture, use the walnut Restor-A-Finish. It matches perfectly.