Despite having been left out in the rain, the rush on mine is in pretty good shape. I cleaned it well with a barely-damp sponge and some Murphy’s, and then went over it lightly with mineral oil to even out the color a bit.

As for the wood, I’ve had VERY good results using Restor-A-Finish followed by Feed-N-Wax. Initially I had just been periodically oiling it with Danish oil, but the Restor-A-Finish is great for getting the tone even (mine also has some water stains, and the finish is completely gone in some areas). I have to re-do it every couple of months, but it only takes a few minutes and the wood really looks great. (Here’s a more recent photo, post-treatment.)

As for retaining the value, here’s my feeling: This is YOUR piece of furniture. Unless you bought it as an investment and are planning to re-sell it to make money at some point, go ahead and do what you need to do to it to make it looks how to want it to. At the end of the day, you have to live with it. If you feel better having someone else do the refinishing, that’s great, but I think you can probably handle this. Feel free to email me if you run into trouble or have questions. :)

We spent the weekend in Vermont trawling for a nice, low dresser with simple lines, but came out empty-handed, with a similar impression of antique malls. And everything was colonial. I did find some nice textiles in a few smaller shops, though, and a faux-jade fish perfume bottle at a barn sale for a dollar, so it wasn’t a total loss.

(And please tell Evan we tuned in to WVKR on our way up – it took me back.)