The Dresser Project

Last week I went out to my parents house to get some wood for another project and I decided to snoop around a bit to see if there was any other "junk" I could use for my projects. I hit gold in an old shed.... although at the time it looked more like a ship wreck.

This beautiful dresser was barrier under old tires and the like. It took about 25 minutes of digging until I could get it out. Once I got it out I could see that it had posts on the back for a mirror (which was no where to be found), one leg had some damage and was shorter than the others, rats had at one point made a nest in the drawers, the handles were rusted, the top was cracked... the list of reasons I should put it back and leave it was never ending. There was NO WAY I could tackle this project. What a mess!

 

But it is summer break and I wanted something to work on and I have been looking for a dresser to use as a TV console for two years. If this didn't work I wasn't out anything. Here's the catch, I had planned on finding something to paint, but this is OLD and it was my grandparents. So, instead of making it more modern I decided to go the restorative approach. My goal was to restore this dresser to it's previous beauty.

 

 

First I brought it home and cleaned out all the yuck. Then I sanded it down. I loved the look as I was sanding it down. It made me seriously second guess my stain choice. I thought about leaving the sanded finish and just stain it. The variation was pretty. Then I thought maybe a lighter stain... but I stuck with what I already had. The stain I used was Dark Walnut.

 

I also spent a good amount of time scrubbing the hardware. I tried everything and I still am not happy with how it came out, but it is much better.

 

It looks almost as good as new. But the imperfections are what make this piece special. I am hoping to get better pictures eventually but I was just to excited to get this post up to wait.