Refinishing a Dresser

lupinfarm

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I'm moving out in 8 weeks and a couple months ago this adorable little dresser showed up in my bedroom. My mum likes to browse Kijiji and pick up random pieces of furniture. She just dumps them off into someones bedroom and we attempt to fit them into our life OR we refinish and sell them. This little guy I decided to keep, since I was looking for a bigger bedside table that I could store my make-up and other bits and bobs in.

It's from a little antique/thrift/shabby chic type shop locally and it came with this gawd awful purpleish paint colour. D: terrible!

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In this photo I had already started to scrape the paint off the top of it. But you get the general jist of just how ugly it is. The knobs are not original, but everything else is. I discovered that the wood underneath is in fabulous condition, it just needs stripping, sanding and some tung oil. I've also picked out these adorable victorian glass knobs for the dresser, and as I type this I'm waiting until I can strip the paint off one of the larger drawers and the varnish off the top of the dresser. This little guy is coming with me to my new place in Peterborough and we're going to strip down my bookshelf too and give it the same tung oil finish.

Check this out, the difference between the two top drawers. One painted and the other mostly stripped (it's completely bare now). I think I know which one I like better! Also, it doesn't have keys for the locks, but we're going to drop into Legacy before I move with one of the little drawers and see about getting a key to fit/operate the locks. All of the lock hardware is still in place, including the catch on the inside of the dresser for all of the drawers.

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Denim Deb

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I hate it when people cover up perfectly good wood w/paint like that. I like to be able to see the wood. Good luck w/the refinishing. Keep us updated on your progress.
 

lupinfarm

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Me too! I love a nice light, relatively finish free wood piece :) That's why I love tung oil. It brings out the colour without being shiney.

We're not sure what type of wood the dresser is, mum thinks it might be Maple. It's not pine, that's for sure.
 

lupinfarm

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ALRIGHT. I spent my entire day working on this little champ :D

It's all done, just missing the new knobs which will be coming this week. I left a bit of the paint on in the crevices and such just because a) it's awful to get out of there and I'm lazy and b) it kind of helps to show off the age of the piece,

Finished product...

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And these are the knobs I'm getting for it, just have to wait to be paid and I'm off to Lowes to grab them.

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It's way way way better than the purple, and the finish is Tung Oil. I've only got two "coats" on there right now, but when I move I'm going to give it a couple more.
 

Denim Deb

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That's beautiful! And, I don't agree that you're lazy. It took a lot of work to do that.
 
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