Tall Antique Dresser Part 2

If you missed the Antique Dresser I am currently working on, be sure to check out Part 1 of this furniture revival. I really wish I had the final photos of this finished beauty for you but the repairs have taken longer than expected and since I have needed my handsome sweets' help with a lot of the repairs, this Penny Wenny has had to learn some patience.  If you ask anyone who knows me, they will tell you that patience is totally a strength of mine. Also I never tell a lie. Ahem...

Here's what we've been up to:

After the base and drawers of the dresser were painted and completely dry, I hand sanded with medium sand paper paying special attention to the corners and high points and lightly sanding all other areas.  This does not  have to look perfect.  In fact if you try to make it all uniform it won't look aged and distressed.  Start small and if you feel like it needs more when you're done, keep sanding.  It's much easier to sand more later than to re-paint if you over-sanded.

You can see in this shot how the edges were roughened up a lot more, and how I was able to really accent the detail by sanding right over the high points on this drawer.

I like to follow with a fine sanding block to get rid of the visible scratch lines left from the medium paper. It helps to soften everything back up again and sort of blend it all back together.

Think of this as your blending brush when you apply eye shadow.  I dream about the days when I used to have enough time to actually apply 3 shades of shadow and actually used my blending brush.  My stash of MAC eyeshadow (I was a bit obsessed when I was young and had $ to spend on myself) now sits all alone in a stashed away box somewhere just waiting to be used.  Poor little dears.

Back on track.  Post sanding, I applied a very small amount of the Minwax stain I used for the top of this dresser as a glaze.  I used the same piece of canvas fabric that already had some stain soaked into the rag and lightly rubbed across the wood focusing on all of the areas where wood was exposed (to darken where it had sanded through to a lighter color) and lightly wiped in the direction of the grain and brush marks on the flat surfaces to give the piece a more worn and aged look.

Notice how light the exposed wood was that shone through before applying the stain

This is one of the many techniques I learned from Miss Mustard Seed, and as expected I love how it turned out.  Typically I age pieces with Valspar's antiquing glaze or Ralph Lauren's faux technique glaze in a deep chocolate brown tint, but this was so fast and I didn't have to spend as much time brushing on and then wiping it all back off as I typically do with the glaze.  I certainly wouldn't recommend this technique for every project, but it worked fantastically for my goal.

The exposed wood is now a much richer color

The drawers may not steal your hearts away solo, but check out the body of this dresser post sanding and stain.  H.O.T.

Next, I cleaned up my beautiful little hardware with some awesome jewelery cleaner I picked up at a Women's Show a few years ago called "Razzle Dazzle".  There are several of these on the market and I'm sure any would do the trick.  I didn't want to get my hardware sparkly clean or new looking, I just wanted to freshen them up and get rid of some of the brassy color that was hiding the gorgeous silver.

I simply sprayed each piece with the cleaner, scrubbed down with a toothbrush, wiped clean with a clean rag, and voila!

Notice how yellow it was before (on the left). 

She sure shined up purty!

I also finished the top of the dresser with Minwax Paste Finishing Wax instead of my typical regimen of Polyurethane per Miss Mustard Seed's recommendation.  This container cost about $9 at Home Depot.  Based on how much I used for the whole dresser top, this may very well last me a lifetime. :)

I dipped a clean piece of scrap canvas fabric into the wax, and rubbed onto the wood in long strokes, once again following the grain of the wood.  I was apprehensive when I first started applying based on the texture and film it seemed to leave but after buffing it in really well, it turned out gorgeous.





I wish you folks could see and feel this wood with your own eye balls.  It is truly so beautiful and perfectly smooth.  Also, I am no antique connoisseur but I like to think that these awesome squiggly lines I have in several places must be from some type of bug squiggling his way through (similar to worm holes).  Am I totally crazy?  Maybe don't answer that. Seriously though, does anyone know what these are?

Once all the exciting makeover aspects were finished, I decided to get busy working on the necessities for reviving this piece.  Although the drawer fronts and sides were in pretty good condition still, the bottoms to each drawer were very warped, cracking, and just plain icky.

We very carefully pried the backs and center supports off, and removed the panels of wood.  They were still held pretty tightly with adhesive into the grooves, so we had to chisel out the pieces that just couldn't be pulled out.

By we, I once again mean "he".  What a good partner in crime.

I replaced the old panels with brand new 1/4" thick sheets of MDF

With wood glue, a few small nails and clamps, we reassembled the drawers and let them dry overnight.  The hubbs requested that I wait at least 24 hours for them to fully dry but I just didn't have the patience.  It was only yesterday, I swear.





Next, I painted all of the original wood in the same creamy blue gray color, not worrying about the new inside panels since they will be covered shortly with decorative liners.

The paint gets to dry overnight (only because I can't do anything more until I have my liners selected) but I am headed into town tomorrow (that sounds so hick-ish... I just moved to a very small farm community after living in Salt Lake City my whole life) to pick up  something fabulous.  After that and after a few more repair items (adding stops, fixing one leg) and putting the hardware back on drawers, this baby will be finito!  Can't wait to show her off.

Thanks for enduring painfully through this novel with me.  I get loopier as the night gets darker, so forgive my ad lib comments.  Perhaps I ought to try posting before midnight on occasion.  Are any of you readers also more productive after 9 pm?  Hopefully I am not alone...

~PW

I'm sharing this project with these fabulous peeps:

Tall Antique Dresser

Typically when I share my projects, I like to wait until I have a fabulous finished piece for the dramatic before and after shot. I decided to go a different route this time. I'm going to show you the steps I have taken (so far) on this incredible antique dresser I bought off of KSL a few weekends ago.  As soon as I saw it online, I knew it was worth the hour long drive to pick her up.  The seller had two dressers and I really had a hard time leaving with just one, but I was disciplined and stuck to my budget I had set aside for that day.

Since I'm still waiting for the pictures stored to my laptop to be recovered, here are the best "before"s I've got that were taken with my phone, after the drawers had been removed.  Hopefully you get the idea.

I love the character that it has with the top section set in just a bit from the base.  It has two darling little drawers that I imagine a teeny tiny little lady stored her knickers in (since that's about all there is room for)  :)

These legs are seeeeeeexy.  There is also a fabulous little hand carved detail in the center of this bottom section. 

I am in love with the hardware on this piece.  I seriously would have paid the $65 that I spent on the whole dresser for just the hardware.  Don't tell the seller that...

They are the daintiest little antique silver pulls, and the two top drawers (not shown, but super small) have these darling oval little knobs.  They will go back on exactly as is when the dresser is finished, aside from a quick cleaning to de-germify :)

I love the hand carved detail on this bottom drawer.

It didn't take long for me to get to work on this beauty.  Because she is so old, there are a few repairs that we have to do.  I say "we" because I volunteer my sweets' services for the tasks that I don't enjoy doing, and he is so much better at figuring out how to fix things.  Good thing he's an engineer.

Working around the issues that we need to repair, I got to work sanding the top slab of wood with my electric sander.

I used a coarse sand paper (80 grit) for the first round, to get all of the stain and varnish off.  This can be very time consuming, and requires some effort (even with an electric sander).  Plan on skipping your arm routine at the gym that day- this will tone your arms right up.  When sanding wood, follow the grain of the wood and work in small sections at a time.

Once I finished sanding the top, I moved on to the edges.  With rounded edges, you have to take extra caution to follow the curve (by rotating the sander as you work) to avoid flattening the edges.  This takes some practice but once you get the hang of it, it's easy peasy.

After the whole top had been sanded with the coarse sand paper to remove all of the "shtuff", I swapped out the paper for a very fine sandpaper (240 grit) to really smooth everything out.  If you end with the coarse paper, your finish will be rough and rigid.  This extra step is so worth the end result.

It took me about an hour and a half to completely sand down the top of this small-ish dresser top, including my second round with the fine sandpaper and an ever so small Diet Coke and Chocolate-covered-pomegranet-balls break.

Hey, I burned a lot of calories sanding.  Give me a break.  BTW if you haven't tried these little balls of heaven, head immediately to your nearest Costco and pick yourself up a bag.  You can thank me later.

Once I had uncovered this gorgeous wood grain, I applied my favorite stain, Minwax Wood Finish in the color Jacobean.

It is the darkest you can go before ebony, which looks almost black.  This is the same finish I used for the Thomasville dresser.  This small 8 oz. container is only about half way empty and I used several coats on both projects.  Unless you refinish a lot of furniture, I would recommend purchasing the small size.  This cost me about $5 from Home Depot. 

I applied this finish with a leftover scrap of drop cloth fabric from my chair and was sure to wear gloves.  I have done this before without gloves and had even scarier hands than I already do all weekend.  Wear the gloves, folks.   I dab some stain onto a very clean piece of fabric, and then wipe the glaze onto the wood in long straight lines going with the grain of the wood.

Once I have covered the whole surface, I go back and "buff" the stain into the wood really well with a quick circular motion.  After allowing the stain to dry and darken for approx 10 minutes, I repeat this process until I reach the desired color.  For this dresser, I applied about 6 coats.  The end color is such a rich color that still highlights the gorgeous natural wood grain.  I love  it.  I have a feeling you will be seeing many more projects in this same finish from Penny Wenny.

The next day, I painted.

I wanted a really pale blue/gray color so I went to my lab and mixed together some colors I already had until I created the perfect blend.  Because the paints I used were paint and primer in one, I skipped the step that I would normally take of spraying or rolling with Kilz original primer.

I applied 2 coats of paint with my 2 1/2 " Behr paint brush that I got on sale for 75% off from HomeDepot.com a few weeks ago.  I'm a Purdy gal, so I was skeptical but so far I am pleased.  I'm willing to try anything for 75% off.

The lighting in this picture is horrible but it is truest to the actual color of the paint

 

I love the contrast between this dark rich top and the soft creamy gray blue base.  Gorgeous...

The drawers were painted the same way, and lined up to dry.

I almost finished the makeover tonight, but am going to keep you on the edge of your seats for just a bit longer to see everything else that I did.  I'm sure you are all biting your nails in anticipation. Hang in there, and come back soon to see this beauty transformed.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

~PW

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