Hello friends, and welcome to Week Three of the One Room Challenge! This week is all about refinishing a vintage dresser found at a local thrift shop. This project almost got the best of me! I was doubting myself every step of the way but before I get into the process be sure to check the ORC blog to see what all the designers and guest participants are up to during Week Three.
Last week I shared the Nursery Design Board and the vintage dresser that inspired me to try and lighten up ours. I can’t believe this is the best before photo I have but in my haste I jumped in without taking a picture so a screen grab from my IG story over the weekend will have to do!
I applied two applications of Multi-Strip Advanced Paint & Varnish Remover and let each application sit for about two hours. The first go around removed most of the turquoise paint and the second removed a layer of navy paint. In hind sight I should have let the stripper sit longer but patience isn’t my best quality! Six hours later we ended up here. Better but still far from that natural beauty in my inspiration photo.
On the second day (after letting the dresser dry over night) I applied a third round of paint stripper and switched things up and used Citristrip. I let this application sit overnight and twelve hours later we ended up here. Slightly better but at this stage in the game I started doubting the process and my hopes for a light natural wood finish. I was over it!
I let the dresser dry for 24 hours and then brought it outside for a little sanding session. I used a 36 grit sandpaper which is super rough and not the best choice for furniture (you can damage the wood) but I wanted to get down a few layers. I then moved to a 60 grit, 100 grit and then finally 120 grit sandpaper to smooth everything out. I then applied a pre-stain wood conditioner and this is when things took a turn and not for the good! The pre-stain turned the dresser orange…an awful orange.
I was now five days into this project and I could see all my hard work quickly being thrown away. I was over it. I decided to go for broke and apply MinWax Simply White stain to tone down the orange. It toned down the orange (win!) but now was a whitish gray that read purple in some light. Epic fail! If I wasn’t so mad at this stage I would have burst into tears.
I wasn’t about to give up so I searched our paint cabinet and found MinWax Weathered Oak and decided to double down and go for a Hail Mary. It’s not like it could get any worse. Right? Well, it helped bring some of the wood tone back but still is more gray then I would like. So, it’s a sort of win. I’m waiting on the new hardware and once that comes in then I will make my final judgement. You never know, it may grow on me! Maybe it’ll be a perfect mistake.
