How to: Refinish a Mid-Century Modern Credenza Pt. 1

If you missed yesterday’s post, check out the first look at my credenza here. It definitely needed a little bit of work and love, but the elbow grease definitely paid off. Thanks to a tutorial on Young House Love, I picked up a couple supplies at the hardware store and got to work.

Before:

Step 1: Magic eraser

I tested it on a non-visible portion first to make sure it wouldn’t do something horrible to the wood, but after the all clear, I scrubbed all the grime off of it. The drawer at the top of the photo has been scrubbed and the bottom one has not. It even removed little paint marks on the drawers, too! You can really tell the difference in this photo as well. Left is still dirty and right is clean. After getting the magic eraser slightly damp and scrubbing, then I wiped off any excess moisture/soapy mix off the wood immediately with a clean rag. The result of a lot of scrubbing: Step 2: Clean out the inside of the credenza.