Funny Halloween: Refinishing Our Heywood Wakefield C3971 Corner Bookcase

September 19, 2013

Refinishing Our Heywood Wakefield C3971 Corner Bookcase

By Sara In AZ

It’s kind of funny how things work out sometimes isn’t it? I have wanted a Heywood Wakefield Corner Bookcase for as long as I can remember…..the price was never right though, or the ones that were available on eBay were too much to ship. It just never felt like the “right” one to buy. The all of a sudden one day up pops this ad on Craigslist.

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And even more weird is it was literally one mile from my house! This was actually for sale at a local consignment store and I was kind of on pins and needles because by the time I saw the ad the store was closed. Soooo, I had to wait ALL the torturous night long to see if I would finally be the proud new owner of a Corner Bookshelf.

As luck would have it the bookshelf was still there and I took it home for $100! Whoo-Hooo! Of course, as I am sure you can tell from the Craigslist pictures, I have also signed myself up for another refinishing project too. eeps! I can never seen to get away from those can I?!

Now you can see, in even more detail, how bad the finish was.

It had definitely seen better days!

Crazy, right!?

I definitely had my work cut out for me!

And here we are just starting the sanding process…………………………

If you would like to see an in-depth look at my staining process please see the post Refinishing Our Heywood Wakefield M328 Desk Bookcase…….The Definitive Post on Refinishing! – that post will give you all the in’s and out’s of my refinishing process.

Most of the disassembled pieces waiting to be sanded.

I have removed the backers to the bookshelf in order to make the sanding/staining process easier.

And the sander is out and ready to go!

Here is one backer already sanded and one waiting to be sanded…remember to always sand ALL of that old finish off!

Starting to sand one of the shelves…………………

………and here I am starting to sand the bookcase.

And now we are finally onto the staining!

I always use the same Wheat ‘Heywood’ stain I get off of a seller on E-Bay. There is a seller on there, needful useful things, who mixes stain to match Champagne and Wheat finishes of Heywood Wakefield blonde furniture. It is a stain and topcoat all in one so you do not have to worry about a lot of steps. I have always had really good luck with his stains, and he will mix custom colors for you if you need that as well. Here is a link to his E-Bay store needful_useful_things . He is a really great seller who is super nice to deal with and is really customer service orientated as well! Check him out!!!