Colin’s New Dresser
If you read my last post, then you know I started refinishing old furniture Summer 2016. Finding old pieces that were in decent condition that I could bring back to life became an addiction. We had more dressers, buffets, tables and nightstands in our garage than any one person should! After a couple of years, I slowed down the refinishing projects and liquidated MOST of my pieces.
I held onto a couple that I knew I wanted to refinish. One was for my son. It was a mid-century Kent Coffey dresser solidly made in the 1960s. A highboy style that was still in great condition and just needed a few touch-ups.
When looking for furniture to refinish, I considered a few things.
manufacturer or name of brand - is it well-known, one that would be appealing for resale
condition of piece - is it solid, do drawers work well and slide easily? If there is veneer (most do) what is the condition?
solid construction and is it solid wood - dovetail, drawer glides,
purchase price - if you are planning to refinish and flip, then this is important because you will want to make sure you make a profit after supplies and time.
And if you read this post, then you know that we recently moved from Illinois to South Carolina. As part of the move and to get them excited, I promised the kids new beds for their bedrooms. I also thought it would be a great time to (finally) refinish the dresser for Colin. So we packed it up in our UHaul and brought it down with us. Since Colin didn’t have a dresser for his clothes, I needed to refinish it pretty quickly once we arrived.
This was a challenge in itself because it can take several days to really refinish a piece properly. I lucked out in that the dresser was in pretty good condition and only needed a few touch-ups to the veneers.
The first step in refinishing a dresser is to clean it well - get the dust, debris and cobwebs off. You will want to turn it on it’s side and make sure to clean the underneath also. But sometimes, I will wait to give it a good scrub AFTER I the sanding step since this can create a ton of dust.
Next step is to decide what you want to do to it - if you’re new to refinishing, you will want to play around with different styles, colors, techniques. If you’re like me, then you already have an approach that you like. Most of my pieces usually are a combination of paint and wood stain. And what you paint or stain may be determined by the condition of a piece. For example, if there is a significant amount of veneer repair, they you will most likely want to repair, prime, then paint. If it’s a piece that will get a ton of use, you may want to stain and seal the surface as it can be more durable over time than paint.
For this one, I knew I wanted a dark blue dresser (my son’s request). The drawers were also in pretty good shape, so I would sand down then stain the drawers to give it that contrast I like.
Once all is sanded and cleaned, I usually try to prime with a stain-blocker. Many times, wood will have oils that seep through and discolor the paint if not treated appropriately (speaking from experience … my daughters painted white shelf is streaky yellow in some spots).
Sand the primer. Wipe it down.
Add the first coat of paint.
Since this was hand-painted, there were brush marks. Try to sand lightly with a 220 or 320 grit paper (very fine) to remove more noticeable marks. Wipe it off to remove dust. Add the second coat.
I always try to plan the process so I can work on drawers while body is drying or vice versa. Especially if you want to complete a project quickly, as I did with this dresser.
Follow the same steps with the drawers. You will need a circular sander. I usually start with a heavier grit to more easily remove the top layers of coating and stain. Then work your way to a finer grit right before applying the stain. Once the first coat of stain dries, apply a second coat to get your desired level of color. Let that dry then add your sealant such as polycrylic or polyurethane. For this one, I went with Polycrylic simply for drying time - it’s water-based and dries a bit more quickly than the oil-based polyurethane.
Once the drawers are done, you can screw on the hardware. The drawers had existing ‘custom’ holes in the dresser (it had holes drilled that did not fit standard pull size.) I had to find new hardware that would disguise or hide the original holes. Colin helped putting on his new hardware - here is where I would typically show a picture of him helping… but I can’t find the ones I took. They must have been accidentally deleted. OOPS. He was THRILLED to help though.
BIG misstep with this dresser -
I kept the dresser in our garage under the house (we have an elevated home) - it’s not very enclosed and is definitely not climate-controlled. As it’s very humid in South Carolina, the wood and drawers absorbed moisture and swelled! The drawers worked fine and glided smoothly BEFORE I started the project. After I removed the drawers, painted the body and stained the drawers, they would NOT go back in the dresser. OOPS. What was I to do? I quickly realized the issue with humidity and found out that wood will also absorb additional moisture with water-based paint. So painted furniture naturally expands (I didn’t know this). We brought the dresser into the AC. I sanded the edges of the drawers a bit and let it sit in the AC for a couple of days. After some sanding and some sitting, the drawers fit in perfectly.
