There are a lot of titles I could give this week’s blog post… How to Revive a Dresser. How to Remove Paint from a Dresser. Revamp a Dresser for $50. Refinishing Furniture while Pregnant: A Memoir. Furniture that Tells a Story. Or most appropriately… The Dresser that Didn’t Go as Planned.

As I started planning our Nantucket Nursery for the Better Homes and Gardens One Room Challenge, I fell in LOVE with this Ikea hack by House on Longwood Lane. But as Covid-19 weaseled it’s way into our world, Ikea stores closed and shipping was double the price of the dresser! Time kept ticking, I kept growing, and I knew I had to resort to Plan B: refinish the worn out dresser we already had sitting in the room.

Spoiler alert: It was a success!

I want to share a few tips on the refinishing process that I learned through several roadblocks. But! I want to start with the heart behind the process. If you’re looking for project details, scroll down a bit!

Furniture that Tells a Story

This is the worn out dresser we had sitting in the guest room. It was painted slate in the initial era of the chalk painted furniture days. It took a beating this last year during a move and then as a work table for the board and batten project. (I hadn’t planned to keep it so we didn’t really protect it!)

Once I got the wild hair to refinish it, I didn’t waste time with a proper before picture… I just started sanding!

My mom found the original dresser (and it’s matching chest of drawers) at the end of a driveway back in 2012 with a “Free” sign. She had just taken an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint workshop and was hooked. This was back when painted furniture was jussssstttttt hitting the scene. I saw the incredible transformation with paint and little prep (it was an icky 80s slick pickle-y finish) and I too was hooked.

Long story short, that dresser was the beginning of a grand adventure in our life. A year later we opened a brick and mortar store in Hilton Head, South Carolina called Revival Designs & Decor. Everything in our store had a past life that we “revived” to current trends.

The message I shared with customers was this:

God doesn’t throw us out when we get tired, worn out or damaged. He pours in love and time to give us new life. All the trials and messy moments become a part of our story that we go on to share with others as proof of His goodness.

And when we do the same with our furniture, those knicks and dings actually become really beautiful texture and detail in the finish. (If you know what you’re doing, which is why we offered monthly paint classes!)

I guess I forgot about this correlation in recent years. For the first time ever, we were in a position to buy new furniture. So we did. It’s a lot easier and quicker, but it doesn’t have a story to tell.

When I sanded off the paint and finish of my dresser, I uncovered lots of knicks, dings and imperfections. I don’t know the story behind them or how they got there. Who knows, maybe they’re from a rocking chair bumping into the drawers in a little girl’s nursery several decades ago!

But I do know the story of revival.

How a very pregnant and tired momma poured lots of love and time into making a piece beautiful and worthy of her rainbow baby’s room. A piece that has been with me every step of adulthood, now serves as the focal point of our next adventure. Becoming a family of 4!

This project sure didn’t go as planned. And took a lot more work than I expected. But we saved a good deal of money and you better believe I’ll be reinvesting that into the room… or maybe hair bows… A girl can never have too many hair bows. Or so I’ve heard 😉

How to Refinish a Dresser

Sanding a Painted Dresser Down to Raw Wood

I followed tips by The Coastal Oak for sanding down to the bare wood. Starting with 80 grit to get the paint off, then 120 for the poly and stain, and finally 220 to smooth things out.

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As I got through the paint, I discovered that some areas had been filled where the veneer was missing. I used water to get most of the filler off, then just sanded it smooth so there wasn’t a jagged edge. The not-so-real-wood underneath did not match, but most areas evened out with the bleaching and staining.

Bleaching a Wood Dresser

I followed more of The Coastal Oak’s tips by bleaching the wood in the sun.

My first attempt was with Seventh Generation Chlorine Free Bleach. I brushed it on with a foam brush and let sit in the sun. It did absolutely nothing.

So I went for the cheap, hard stuff. Straight bleach from the Dollar Tree. Same method and it really did lighten the wood! I did three rounds, letting dry thoroughly in between. You can see the progression in the photos below. It evened out the wood tone a bit, but the varying pieces of the shell were still pretty obvious.

After three rounds, I sanded again with 220. The final product is the bottom drawer of the last picture.

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Adding Furniture Legs

One of the reasons I wanted a new dresser was my deep disdain for furniture that goes all the way to the floor. Give me legs!

Well thanks to my hubby’s quick thinking that was an easy fix. The toe kick across the bottom (which drastically dated it) was attached with 4 screws. He undid the screws and it was ready for a lift, literally 😉

I purchased furniture legs and plates from Home Depot for $28 total and attached to the bottom. Screws are included so this all took less than 20 minutes!

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Adding a New Wood Top to a Dresser or Table

When I sanded down the shell of the dresser, I discovered the top was not wood – just a fake, slick laminate. I wanted an all wood dresser so I added a new top. Our store was out of the longer pieces of plywood, so my next best option was 2 planks of a 1″x10″. I wasn’t looking for a farmhouse plank look, but just two pieces doesn’t look too rustic-y.

A kind associate helped me find a piece with minimal knots and ZERO bow. Learn from my mistakes back in the day, lay your wood on the aisle floor and make sure it’s perfectly flat in all directions! I purchased a 10 foot pine board and had them cut it into two 53″ pieces, which allowed a 1/2″ overhang on the fronts and sides. Total cost was $24 for a new solid wood top.

When I got home I sanded the boards really well with 120 and 220 grit sandpaper to wear down the edges and smooth out the corners. Wait to attach to the top until you stain because the wood will shrink a bit!

The wood top is easily attached with Liquid Nail. It’s best to attach it in your room and let cure in place. If you move it in the future, lift from the dresser, not the new wood top

Matching Different Types of Wood with Stain

Another road bump was discovering that most parts of the dresser were all different types of wood – plus the new raw pine wood top and legs. The best way to match the variances is to start with your lightest stain on your darkest wood. For me this was the drawers. I used one coat of Weathered Oak on the drawers and sides of the dresser.

Sidenote: Always wear gloves when staining! Stain is a pain to wash off your hands!

Once that was dry, I used a scrap piece of wood to determine my layers for the more raw areas. I needed to darken them just a touch to blend with the drawer fronts.

The winning combo was Weathered Oak and Provincial. I did one coat of Weathered Oak, wiped off, then immediately applied a light coat of Minwax Provincial while it was still wet and wiped off. It added just enough depth to help them blend a little better. Once dry, finish with a final pass of 220 grit sandpaper.

As you can see in the pictures, it isn’t perfect – but hey, we aren’t either! Some wood is probably 30 years old. Other parts are brand new. They’re going to accept stain differently. Maybe that’s a good life correlation right there 😉

Spray Painting Furniture Hardware

Hardware is an easy way to update an outdated furniture piece. I wasn’t in the mood to fill holes so I kept the original hardware. Two light coats of Rustoleum did the trick!

The Joy is in the Process

This project had a lot of unexpected roadblocks to overcome. The first being not getting to do the project I had planned… Though it took a lot of work (that felt like more work because of a pregnant belly), I never lost hope. I saw the beauty of the process. I saw the piece for what it was on it’s own and not compared to my expectations. My piece would never look like the dresser from my inspiration post because the initial starting point was vastly different. Once I stopped comparing, I was able to recognize the beauty of MY dresser.

I finally realized I had a one-of-a-kind dresser on my hands. Completely original and unique – just like the baby girl who would enjoy it for years to come.

Buying new is sometimes the best solution. Other times you have to make do with what you have and take a different approach. But in the end, remember there is a point to the process!

And comical piece to note? The day we moved the finished dresser into the nursery… Ikea stores reopened! What are the chances?!

What’s next?

It’s coming together! A very very very special piece of the room arrived in the mail last week that I’ll be unveiling for my fabrics post! Eeek! So excited!

And this week I hope to do a special painting for above the crib!

Stay tuned!

You can read all of my 2020 One Room Challenge Posts here.