My Adventures in Refinishing a Dresser

 Around Christmas time I decided to refinish a dresser that my step dad's brother gave us for free. I needed it for my room because it has shelving in one door and quite frankly I couldn't reach my sweaters on the shelf in the closet. So I read up on the process in many blogs and tried to decide what I wanted to do to the dresser; such as whether I wanted a distressed look. I decided to go with a slightly distressed look. Here are the items you will need. I got everything at Lowe's.

• Paint for base coat (I used an leftover paint sample) It doesn't have to cover the whole dresser
• Paint/Varnish Stripper
• Mineral Spirits to clean up the paint stripper and brushes
• Paint brushes
• Fine sand paper
• plastic scrappers/putty knifes (metal will tear up the wood and cause divets)
• toothbrush for scrapping small narrow areas
• Wood putty to fill in divets
• New hardware
• Paste Wax
• rags
• Top Coat
• Sealant if you want (depends on look)
• Ventilation Mask
• Rubber gloves for varnish remover



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Dresser Door Before



Dresser Before



The first step is to set up your work area. I started in the garage but it was way too cold for me and for the varnish stripper to work. So I put a tarp and cardboard down in our tiled foyer. I then stripped all the varnish and the old fashioned flower painting off of the entire dresser. This is a pretty tedious process. Wear long sleeves, pants, and gloves. This stuff burns! Make sure the temperature where you are working is above 55, or whatever the varnish stripper says, or it won't work well. Also make sure to vent your workspace. That varnish remover is wicked stuff. After it has set for about 15 minutes scrape off the remover and varnish. Work in small areas at a time. Don't let the stuff dry completely. This process may have to be repeated several times.  After you have removed all the varnish put mineral spirits on a rag and wipe down the whole piece. Let the whole piece dry before moving on.

Door with all the paint and varnish off
  

Now sand all of the rough areas and any areas where stripper remains. Fill in all of the divets with wood putty and sand after drying. Also if your new pulls and knobs do not fit the current handles you will need to fill the old holes with putty then drill new holes. I had to do this because the old pulls were about 5 inches and the new ones were only 3 inches. Also I wanted the handles to be lower on the door. I used a template I created out of a piece of cardboard to make sure my handles all lined up. Use an electric drill to put in the new holes. 

Now it's time to paint your base coat. You don't have to paint everywhere, just the areas you think you will distress.

Base coat. I used a tan.

It's not necessary to paint the inside of the dresser. It's really up to you.

 After the base coat has dried use the paste wax. With a clean rag put a light coat of wax just in the areas you want to distress. Let this dry for at least an hour.

Next you will paint your base coat. I chose a Lemon Mint. I painted this all over the dresser and over the waxed areas. It took me three coats to obtain the color I wanted. After the paint has thoroughly dried you can distress it. Use the sandpaper to go over the waxed areas.  I didn't need to use the sand paper but was able to peel off paint with my fingernail. When you are satisfied with your distressed look add your handles and knobs. I didn't buy new hinges and the old ones were a weathered brass so I bought a bottle of valspar metallic satin nickel and spray painted the old ones. They look new. (Also I couldn't find one of the hinge bars so I used a long nail.) You can do a coat of sealant before adding your handles if you desire.

And viola! New dresser!