Have You Ever Tried to Refinish Furniture?

We love to rescue furniture from the junk pile. The pieces that everyone has given up on, the ones headed for the landfills. One of our favorite things to do is fix them up, repair their cracks and bring them back to life. Make them happy and beautiful again.

The Refinishing Process

It looks pretty sad. The top was chipped and needed a little bit of repair. It was very wobbly, meaning it needed the screws tightened, so it could stand sturdy. A few of the drawers needed work as well. This is all done in the prep work phase and washing the piece down. Then the elbow grease work begins. We started by sanding the top down to the original wood. Next we stained the top with 2 coats of a dark Minwax stain. We like darker wood. Then we used 3 coats of poly to seal the top.

Painting the base and drawers of the dresser was the next phase of the refinishing process. We happen to like the white farmhouse-y look which includes distressing. This is the reason why we don’t sand the whole piece. We sand the edges or any dents that are in the wood to give it the old, warm and welcoming look.

After we have painted, distressed and wax sealed, we scrub the hardware with soap and water. Most of the time the hardware ends up looking good as new. Sometimes we need to spray paint and poly seal the hardware. Other times we do need to replace the hardware. With this dresser we ended up spray painting the hardware as we loved the look of it, but not the color.

Styling the Dresser

After the dresser is finished, the fun part begins- styling the dresser.

We are using this in our dining room. In the winter, it’s a hot cocoa bar. The rest of the year, it’s a fun little place to decorate for the seasons. The drawers hold our placemats, linens, part of our mug collection and some candles. Our new house didn’t come with a ton of storage space, so this dresser acts like a linen closet. There’s so many options and different ways you could use this sweet little dresser.

This is all part of the fun of refinishing furniture. Seeing it’s potential. Figuring out different ways to use the piece and how it would fit in our home and sometimes other’s homes too.

Much Love,

Joleen & Jess