Refinishing A Dresser

I Refinished A Dresser!

6/26/2023

I'm glad that this project is FINALLY finished!!! It was started back in early 2022 and I intended to finish it that summer but life got away from me and it didn't happen. I was determined that I would get it done this year and it's done!!!

The reason this project even got started was because I needed a dresser when we moved. At our old house I had a closet organizer system and my closet was bigger to begin with. Our new house has smaller closets and my parents didn't want to pay to put in the closet systems again. So I needed a dresser. We had one that I could use, but it is from the 1970s or so and I HATED the color. I just could not look at that day in and day out so I asked if I could refinish it. (It was part of a furniture set from my great-grandmother so I wasn't sure if it would be the end of the world if I changed it). With the "okay" from my family, I set to work figuring out what that entailed.

Getting the old finish off was... interesting. I started with a product called CitriStrip that is supposed to strip off old stain. It basically didn't work (but it did smell good). I ended up sanding the whole thing. That was also interesting, because there are small crevices and the sides of the dresser aren't normal wood. I learned about oscillating tools and different kinds of sandpaper. Because I was working on this in the winter, the staining process was going to be challenging due to the low temperatures. So when a friend of ours offered us an old dresser that they didn't need anymore (that was white and slightly bigger to boot), we took it and it removed the urgency to get the dresser stained before we moved. Well, I liked this dresser better than the other one so my dad took it to use and it sat, unfinished, in the basement and time passed.

I was intent on getting this finished this summer and when I learned my dad had a work trip, I decided that was the perfect time! I wouldn't be causing him problems with not having the dresser since he wouldn't be here and then I didn't have to stress about how long it might take.

None of this would have been possible with the help and expertise of a friend from church. He's an experienced woodworker and none of my family really know what we are doing so I appreciated his help. I didn't love this project but I am pleased that I attempted it and completed it. I'm not eager to do another refinish DIY but I could. And while I was going for a gray/brown stain, I do like what I ended up with.

This is what we started with. You can't get the full feel of the yellow/orange tint to this stain but it is pretty bad.

I had intended to take the "before" and "after" photos in the same spot and same light but since it took so long that was not an option.

(A knob is off because I had already taken it off before I remembered to take a "before" photo and I didn't feel like putting it back to take the picture and then take it off again :)