I repaired one of the drawers on the Dorothy Draper dresser this morning. This evening I tried to tackle the worst drawer – the one with the [dramatic intake of breath] nails in it. I don’t want to use a hammer claw to remove the nails since that will damage it further. The nail heads seem to be very thin and in quite tight. I tried using a super old (thin) butter knife that didn’t have teeth, couldn’t even get that under the nail. Grrr. Suggestions?
Today’s other adventures involved a 4-5 hour drive around the wilds of Queens and Long Island. We began our adventure by heading to Rockaway Beach and then finding ourselves surrounded by golfers and golf carts in the town of Lawrence, NY. Hysterical, the course seems to go through the village. Glass repairmen must make a mint out there. Most of the homes looked like Jake’s from 16 Candles. No, really.
We stopped at an awesome Italian deli in Lynbrook for lunch. Nutella Cream Cheese?! What a great idea. The counter guy left this enormous mound of Parmesan on the counter right in front of me. Don’t think I didn’t think about taking a big bite out of it. It was a fantasy I have yet to let go of.
Much later, we stopped in Flushing, Queens for dinner – land of awesome Chinese food. We spent about $5 and had a pile of fried dumplings and duck tacos. Yay! At this point we were both pooped from all the sun…but I made the Fiance pull over when I saw a tag sale in Elmhurst. I nabbed two pair of earrings and a soap dish.
The clip on earrings were $1 each. The (fabulously gaudy) green earrings will be made into magnets for the fridge and the blue earrings I totally dig. Not sure if I can turn them into regular post earrings (odd angle) but I’d like to try and there’s a jewelry supply joint near my office. Will swing through there this week and see if they have suggestions.
The soap dish was $2. Normally I wouldn’t spend $2 on a soap dish at a tag sale but something told me these (super nice) folks needed the $2 more than I did.
I don’t think this soap dish will win any design awards, but I hope the $2 helps put a half gallon of milk (or whatever) in their fridge. It makes me feel good. Sometimes it pays NOT to dicker.
Last but not least, I finally weedwhacked the yard. Now I’m all itchy!
July 12th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
You can pry up the nails by prying underneath the board they are in, then pushing the board down, and getting under the heads in the space left behind. I have the coolest little tool called a wunderbar that is like the tiniest little bright blue crowbar. My husband laughed about it when I bought it, but I think he uses it more than I do now! It would be my go-to tool for this situation.
July 12th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Or if you can get to the other side, using a hammer to knock the nail out from its point; or at least enough that you can then use a wrench or the butter knife to get at it.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:26 am
You might try out the earrings ‘as is’ – since they are screw backs you can adjust the ‘tightness’, so they might not be horribly uncomfortable!!
July 13th, 2009 at 4:11 am
Dahling, next time come to the North Shore, & I’ll show you some houses.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:25 am
Most of my cousins are out on The Island. They’re all coming out of the woodwork now with The Facebook and I have to take my mom to visit them during her July/August visit. Long Island…ugh….so NOT my scene!
July 13th, 2009 at 5:44 am
Not all of LI is an extended strip mall of despair nor The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s less brassy twin. Some of it is just like story-book America…
July 13th, 2009 at 6:45 am
I was so nervous to put the knife under the wood, afraid the nail head would pop through the wood and crack. Hmm. Will try (gently) tonight.
I can’t wear clip/screw on earrings, I’m just not that talented. I either lose them or they start to hurt after an hour.
July 13th, 2009 at 6:56 am
I love the blue earrings…hope you can make them work! (I hear you…I can’t do the screw in the ear either). And the soap dish is sweet.
I’m thinking you may have to try to get that face of the drawer off just a bit but I know that’s tricky without damaging/cracking the face. Will a flat, wide screwdriver give you a little more leverage than a butter knife? I’ll ask the man of the house tonight. He’s talented with stuff like this. I also read the comments and can’t wait to google (and possibly purchase) a wunderbar. That also happens to be the name of one of my favorite drinking establishments at the shore.
July 13th, 2009 at 7:12 am
How about some kind of really strong magnet? Probably crazy idea. Or, as someone said, can you go in from the other side with an awl and gentle hammer? You’re so right about yard sales, especially these days, pay attention to the situation. If it seems the sellers are doing it for reasons other than just cleaning out the basement, don’t haggle over a couple of bucks. Love the earings!!
July 13th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Searching wunderbar and coming up empty…anyone?
July 13th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Wonderbars are available at most hardware stores and are handy for many projects. I got mine at the Mom n’ Pop TrueValue in the hood. I’d not use that for this project, too powerful and it would be very easy to damage the black lacquer/wood. Maybe you can take the drawer to the hardware store and ask their advice re:nail removal.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:49 am
If possible knock the nails on thier backside until they push out a little more. Then get a piece of heavyish plastic (like a plastic spackle knife) and cut a slit about an inch long in the center of it (this would be easier if i could draw a picture for you) slide the nail post into that slit and then use a claw hammer, or tiny crowbar thing to ease the nail out. This still might damage the laquer a little but it’s the best i’ve got!
Good luck