Dresser One Redo

Dresser redo. 

Many of you have asked about the dresser refinishing that we were able to tackle.

It was a long process and sorry to my neighbors for the early morning sanding on a few Saturday’s but it turned out well.

Here is the initial picture. We were happy with the structure of the dresser but it needed some TLC. We knew some of the finish we wanted to redo and our compromise was that I would not paint all of it if I could refinish all of it.

So

Step 1: Cleaning it

We had to get everything out of it and wipe everything down. We spent an entire afternoon one day playing round robin with a trailer of furniture between Andrew’s brothers, Andrew’s mom and our house.

Step 2: Sanding

Though this was the longest step it was the one we could not go without. There was so much stain and finish on it, I could not tell what kind of wood it was. So we started sanding, sanding and more sanding. I started with the top because I wanted to see If I was going to need to paint the top or stain the top and that would set up how I would work the rest of the project. Many sheets of sand paper later we finally got through the top. I loved it. Then I started working on the drawers. We discovered the darker stain around the edges made it pop so I just sanded the surface of the drawers and left the outer highlight stain. (and it was easier)

Step 3: Cleaning again

We wiped everything down.  On projects like this the yard leaf blower is your best friend. Blow the piece out, then wipe it down with a damp cloth and repeat. This gets the most dust away with your time.

Step 4: Lightly sand

I used really course grit sand paper to get it down to the grain that I wanted so I went over everything with a finer sandpaper twice. I also went over the sides of the cabinet and the front of the cabinet where the drawers sit in. They did not have to be down to the grain but I wanted it a little rougher so my paint would stick better to the wood.

Step 5: Cleaning again

It may seem ridiculous but it is worth it. It keeps the dust out of you paint and stain.

Step 6: Stain

I picked out the stain that we were going to use and one coat of the stain with a foam brush wiping it off immediately with a rag worked for the color we were wanting.

Step 7: Paint white.

 Much like this one here. I would have used latex but I had enamel at home so I was trying to use what I had. I painted the white on all the places I wanted it with paint I had at the house. I realized that it would need at least two coats and some places three.

Step 8: Polyurethane. Much like the one here. I used some I had leftover

On all the stained portion I put one coat of light polyurethane. The top with the stain raise the grain so I used 400 grit sand paper to make it smooth again and then put the polyurethane on the top so it would be slick. I didn’t want it super shiny. So one coat worked just fine.

Step 9: I steel wool cleaned all the hardware. It had 30 years of hand oil residue on it. I knew we would keep the hardware for now but wanted to brighten it up a bit so some SOS pads and water worked just fine. I put them in a warm (off) oven after I had baked something to dry so they would not turn green and be dull again. I took them out about an hour later and they were dry. Letting them fully cool I put them back on the cabinets.

I still need to sand and paint the mirror but that will come.

I am excited with how it looks! Thanks for reading.