Refinish the Base Dresser (for the Antique Box Hutch)

Here’s the dresser in it’s original condition. It had bright red plastic drawer pulls (probably not original) and layers and layers of paint. The top layer being a yellowed white. It was chipping across the top and I thought I could use a scraper and just scrape the paint off the top so I could refinish it.

After a few hours (my entire baby’s morning nap…GONE!!) I decided I needed to bring out the big guns and get some chemicals to strip the paint. I did end up chipping the entire dresser top of paint….a woman on a mission! (I should have just waited until I bought the chemicals….)

I went to my local home improvement store and bought the stuff that looked like it would work the best and it sure did! In 15 minutes, SERIOUSLY only 15 minutes….It was bubbling and it pretty much, wiped off! Like I said before…apparently I like the school of hard knocks and should have given up earlier (when that last patch of paint wouldn’t come off and I became determined to get it off), I should have gone and gotten the chemicals. LOL

All stripped and ready to be sanded and prepped for staining the top and the drawer fronts are ready too. It is messy and you have to wear gloves…I used an old piece of wood to strip the wood on and as it would strip off, I would wipe the yucky paint on the wood.

I stained the top a beautiful dark brown stain. I wanted the top stained and the rest of the dresser painted the heritage white. (the same white color that I did the library card catalog) I’ve always wanted a set of cool cupboards to flank the windows in my studio. (I don’t have the ability to flank the window in this new studio in the house in Kansas but, they do sit side-by-side and look REALLY cool)

The insides of the drawers had old, crumbly contact paper in them. I removed them to reveal well preserved insides of drawers.

I used a foam core board (from the dollar store that I had bought for something else) and it fit perfectly and just needed a little painters tape on the edges to seal it so I could paint the dresser the heritage white.

I decided to leave the foam core on it for the move to Kansas to protect the freshly stain top. Now you’ll have to wait and see it with the antique box cupboard hutch on top. It makes me SO happy thinking about it all done….. a vision two years on the making!!