Refinishing Our Dresser: Before and After Photos

May 2, 2011 by Sarah Gooding

One evening several months ago I saw a Craigslist ad for a free dresser. They put it out on their porch and said anyone should come take it. Since it was fairly nearby our home, my husband and I jumped in our car. We found that the dresser was huge, painted black and solid wood. I suggested that we refinish it, having never refinished anything in my life, not knowing how much work it would be. Though it was a free dresser we had to buy a sander and all kinds of potions and scrapers to get the paint off. Here’s what it looked like before we started:

It took days of stripping, sanding and staining:

I have to admit that there were many moments of regret during this project, but in the end we were really happy. We now have a unique, solid wood dresser and a sense of satisfaction at having transformed into something beautiful.

Here’s a closer look:

This is a huge dresser and I love the way it looks now. I hope to be able to tell my grandchildren that we refinished it ourselves. No, it wasn’t fun – but it was totally worth it.

Tags: refinishing furniture

1 Comment + Add Comment

Michael Montgomery February 20, 2012 at 11:33 pm

Beautiful end result! It’s just the sort of set I’d love at the top of our stairs where all could see it! So now that you’ve bought all the “Kit” will you be bringing back other furniture from the dead? btw … I found your site via your twitter feed and I’m following … muttering to himself … now where’s that link to Craiglsit

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