Dresser Rehab

A few months ago, I was waiting around on my front porch for my dad to pick me up for work. (Can’t remember, but I guess my car was in the shop.) And I heard this horrendous noise coming from across the street. After a little while, I saw my middle-aged neighbor dragging a dresser across her broken-up driveway.

So I hopped up to help her bring it to the street. She was setting it on the curb for anyone to pick up. After a quick glance, I noticed it was in really good shape. She saw my interest and asked if I wanted it. And then proceeded to help me bring it across the street to my yard!

Holla! I was able to bring it inside by myself…all while I was still waiting on Dad…

All of the drawers worked and the legs and body of the dresser looked nice and seemed well kept. The two main eyesores were these paint spots right on top…

…and the dusty glaze that couldn’t be wiped away right next to the spots.

Lesser of an eyesore were the worn-out drawer pulls.

Since it was in pretty good overall shape, I didn’t care to change the stain or do anything drastic. There’s always later for that! My plan was to lightly sand everything to get grime and grit off, then apply a few fresh coats of polyurethane.

And that’s what I did!

It all started with some 120-grit sandpaper.

I hand-sanded every side and surface. When I got to the top, I noticed the sanding wasn’t doing much for the paint spots. So I used a putty knife to gently scrape the paint off, trying not to make any scratches or grooves in the process!

I did a good job scraping, but the paint must have been on there for a while because it pulled the stain off that was under it. On the plus side, the bare wood is less obvious than white paint!

But I didn’t stop there. I sanded the bare wood spots a little more before I whipped out a cotton swab and some nearby wood stain.

I picked the closest stain color from my leftover supply to match the furniture’s existing stain and dabbed it on the spots with the swab. It’s still not perfect, but it’s much better than when I started!

Finally I was ready to apply the first new coat of polyurethane. Again I used some leftover poly I hand leftover from another project, possibly when Dad and I refinished an old desk?

I slowly worked my way around the dresser applying the polyurethane. Once the first coat was complete, I moved on to fixing up the hardware while it dried.

It was hard to tell whether the pulls were real brass or not. So in the off-chance they were brass, I picked up some Brasso to clean them up. I followed the instructions on the bottle and they came out looking like this…

Clearly they aren’t brass…but they looked really cool! They didn’t stay that way for long, though. I cleaned them up as best I could and then took to some gold spray paint.

They sat drying while I applied the second and final coat of polyurethane to the dresser. Then I came back and second-coated the hardware. I left both to dry overnight before I started putting everything back together.

Putting the second part of the hardware got a little tricky. Guess it was a little thicker after two coats of spray paint! But it’s nothing a hammer couldn’t fix!

So I didn’t scuff up the fresh paint, I placed a rag on top of the hardware before hammering. It worked like a charm!

I moved the dresser back in place where it had been before I refinished it, in my dining room. Now it can act as a small buffet to my small dining room! Plus the added storage ain’t bad!

The sanding and polyurethane did exactly what I wanted it to do, get rid of that dusty glaze on the top!

And I think the paint spots-turned-bare wood ended up looking decent after the stain touchup and the poly.

But from a wider angle it practically disappears.

And it totally vanishes when you put a mirrored tray on top of it! Ha!

Before I called this project done, I removed the old adhesive shelf liner that was in the drawers and replaced it with fabric. I’ll be sharing how I did that in another post. But here’s a sneak peek of the inside of the drawer…before!

Update: I’ve completed the overhaul of the inside of the dresser drawers with fabric!

What’s the best “treasure” you’ve claimed from the side of the street? Or have you been the one discarding “trash”? Comment below to let me know!

Thanks for Checking In! ~Chelsea