This Gem of a dresser turned into a project of love, it unfortunately ended up having a fair few issues and moving forward I'm going to be a bit more picky with painted furniture!
Before:
I remembered to take some before photos (but not before I had already removed the hardware lol)
Thankfully it had a complete set of its original hardware!!!
First I decided what parts of the dresser I wanted to bring back to its natural wood and ended up picking the bottom two drawers, the top and the legs (fewww so much work!) I used QCS strip well because thats what I had on hand and I'm still not convinced its worth it for the price. I had to do 3 coats and a full scrub with 000 steel wool.
After finally getting all that white off I noticed that the veneer was just peeling away. I ended up having to remove both layers of veneer from the top and both drawers.
The best way I have found to remove this is laying wet but not soggy or dripping towels on the veneer for a couple hours then it just peels away.
After this, I sanded with 60, 100, 150 then 220. I tend to sand my pine to 220 and not 120/150 because it always has an irregular staining pattern, by making the wood a little less open it tends to (in my opinion) stain a little more uniform. I also scuff sanded the body with 220 grit.
The dresser body and top drawers were painted with Fusion Mineral Paint in Coal and the rest was stained with Minimax oil stain in Antique Walnut. I did 3 coats of the stain to get the more rustic feel I was going for.
This was the first coat:
I used a stencil from Dixie Belle for the sides of the drawers ( I dont remember the name and threw out the packaging sorry), lined the top two drawers with peel and stick wallpaper I purchased off Amazon. I used Big Mama's Butter to rehydrate the wooden drawers.
The wood was sealed with dixie belle top coat in matte. I really like their top coat, I seem to have the best luck with it finishing streak free, I also use a sponge brush to apply rather then a bristle one.
The hardware was cleaned up using Bar Keepers friend and steel wool 0000.
Heres the finished dresser photo dump:
Thanks for reading!
-J
Note: Everything used in refinishing this dresser was purchased by myself. I have no affiliate relationship with any brand mentioned in this post, I purchased everything of my own free will therefore my onions are based on how I personally feel about the products.