Rehabbing Old Furniture - by Sunscape

This old 3-drawer dresser was going to end up at the curb by a friend of mine. I just happened to stop by her home when she was cleaning out her garage. She had been given the dresser many years ago and never took the time to refinish it.

This past week we had two warm, sunny days so I decided it was time to tackle the job myself.



This is how badly the varnish was on this piece of furniture. Most of it was cracking off easily so I used a scraping blade to take most of the varnish off. I did not even have to use any striping chemicals on any part of the dresser.



Here you can see how the sides looked before and after the scraping. The varnish coat came off with very little effort. My wrist got a little tired by the time I got to the one side, so my husband stepped in to finish it for me.



I used a palm sander starting with 80 grit paper and worked on getting most of the stain residue off. It really only took changing the paper twice on the top of the dresser and once on the drawer fronts.

Once the first layer was off I switched to 120 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface. Then on to a pass over the entire dresser with 200 grit sandpaper. All in all, it only took me less than two hours to sand the entire piece. I was actually surprised that it went so quickly.



I brought the dresser into the kitchen where it was warmer and used a tack cloth to remove any remaining dust. Then it was time to prime the sides and front edges of the dresser with chalk paint from Dixie Bell.

Now, I know some of you may think that it is terrible to paint old furniture, but, I am not one of those that hold onto the past. So, it was time to prime and get two coats of chalk paint on the sides which is depicted in the top three photos.

The following day, after letting the paint dry for 24 hours, I used a Rustoleum Gel Stain to create the look I was after. Since the stain is translucent, all I had to do was brush it on in small sections and then wipe it off with a lint-free cloth. I was pleasantly surprised at the result as this was the first time doing anything like this.



I finished putting the gel stain on all the painted surfaces and left the draw-fronts, legs, and the top natural. All that was left was to seal the natural wood with a clear coat of polyurethane to protect the wood. I used wax on the painted surface to seal that too. I was going for a two-tone look for this piece and was hoping I would like the final result.



Here is a view of the final result from the left and then from the right side.





Both my husband and I were pleased with the transformation on this dresser. It sits next to my front door and is the perfect place to keep some of my crafting supplies. You know crafters can accumulate a lot of different stuff to get creative with.



Here is a close-up of the hardware I chose to finish off the piece. Perhaps in another post, I will share how I changed the entire look of my 60-year-old bedroom set. I hope you enjoyed seeing my journey through bringing this old dresser back to life once again.

Until next time, this is Sunscape
Sun. Scape. Ing Your Day