All Dresser-ed Up-

All Dresser-ed Up!
Refinishing an old dresser is easier than you think!

Ever since I first saw this old beat up dresser in the basement of my "boyfriends" house I had big plans for it! When we were married the plans became reinforced... and then when we were expecting our second child the dream was going to become a reality-we were going to have a little girl! You see, this dresser was curvy and therefore in my eyes it was feminine. The dresser was shabby, water stained and colored on, and, was in need of some lov'in.

Step by Step~
First I had to sand the dresser down. I started to do this by hand and seemed to be taking a really long time. So I looked at my power tools and decided to try out our oscillating tool that came with a sanding attachment. This worked like a charm! The only tiny draw back is that there is some areas where it looks like the sander scratched the wood. But, on the plus side of that the stain I chose was pretty dark and with the wood grain the scratches are hardly noticeable.

Once I was done with sanding the next step was removing all dust residue from the dresser and the drawer faces. I used HDX tack cloths to accomplish this ($2.68 for a 3 pack). All you do is simply wipe down all surfaces to be stained and discard the cloth. After all the dust was gone I proceeded to stain. I wanted to accomplish a nice dark finish with a hint of red, so the stain I chose was Minwax Red Mahogany to try and match our daughter's crib. For my tools I used an old cotton running event t-shirt, and rubber gloves. I dipped the cloth in the stain, and wiped it on the dresser starting with the top, then sides, front, and then moved to the drawer fronts. I repeated this step approximately three times, each time I wiped on stain I would wipe it off one to three minutes later. The longer you leave stain sit on the raw wood the deeper the color you will achieve, and I wanted it to get as dark as possible with out using black stain. Here is the stain I used.

HomeDepot $6.48/qt.

After I stained I did use a polyurethane clear coat just because I wanted the finished product to be clean and durable since it would be used in a child's room.  I picked up Minwax clear satin poly from HomeDepot. To apply the stain I bought some foam paint brushes which were about .57 cents each. When applying clear coat you have to be careful not to shake the can to avoid bubbles in your clear coat. I applied three coats of poly with a day in between each coat. I probably could have done two of the three coats in the same day but I didn't have enough time. After the first coat I sanded with a fine grit sand paper, used the tack cloth again to remove dust. Repeat on the second coat. Third coat I used a brown paper bag to do a super fine sanding. (tip from a youtube video)

HomeDepot: $10.77/qt

Next step was replacing the bottoms of each dresser drawer. The condition of the drawer bottoms were old, dusty, and had black spots which may have been mold. I purchased three pieces of Hickory project panels from HomeDepot at $14.30 each. The sheets were 24" x 48" and 1/4" thick. I took out the drawer bottoms which took a little tlc. There were little tack nails and glue keeping them in. I did end up breaking part off two drawer bottoms to get them out (which I fixed by pre-drilling tiny holes, then tapping in new tack nails, and wood glue in the middle to help reinforce).Once I had the bottoms out I traced an outline on the new pieces, and cut them out with a jigsaw. Then I slid the new bottoms in and tacked in at an angle on the under-back side.

Last step in finishing the dresser was to replace the drawer pulls. I found these knobs at Hobbylobby.com. They were on sale on their website for $1.99 each plus shipping ($18.89). I chose purple because her room is painted a light purple and no where else in her room had purple.

~Finished Product~ 
Unfortunately, I can not find any of my before photos, so close your eyes and imagine a fawn colored dresser with light purple crayon on the front of the drawers and water marks on the top... otherwise you can't get the jest of how far it came.

Cost break down:
Foam Brushes: $1.77
Drawer pulls: $19.89
Tack Cloth: $2.49
Drawer bottoms: $42.90
Clear Polyurethane: $10.77
Stain: $6.48

Total project cost: $84.30 ~Way cheaper than buying a new solid oak dresser or a moderately priced-cheaply made dresser!