Dillingham Esprit Highboy

A full restoration of a 1960s Dillingham Esprit highboy — American mid-century design at its most confident. The piece came in with a dulled, ambered varnish, a few tired joints, and the slow dings of sixty years of actual life.

The original wood deserved to be the story, so the finish came all the way off. Two-stage sanding at 120 then 180, stopping just short of the veneer. Failed joints re-glued and clamped; old hardware brackets pulled and hidden. Surfaces toned back toward the original warmth with a sheer custom blend — a nod to how these pieces looked the day they left the factory, not the day they arrived at the shop.

Three coats of oil-based polyurethane, hand-rubbed between, until the grain came through again and the brass hardware had something worth reflecting.