Antique Dresser REVEAL!

You probably don’t remember since it’s been WEEKS since I posted Part 1 of my antique dresser project, but I finally have her finished! If you’d like a recap, read all about her here.

Once I had finished stripping, sanding, and cleaning her she was all ready for a coat of stain. I kept the color dark and close to the original since I’m putting her in our sun room which already has a few rich wood pieces.

The stain was very easy to apply; I just cut up one of my husband’s old shirts, dipped it in the stain and rubbed it in. After I let it sit for about 15 minutes, I wiped off any excess with a clean cloth.

Again, this was a learning experience, so next time I will definitely wear gloves. This is what my fingers looked like by the time I was done and it took some serious scrubbing to get it off!

After the stain was dry, the dresser got 2 coats of polyurethane for protection. Here is the dresser after stain and poly:

While I waited for that to dry I decided I would try to clean up the old hardware.

 I was planning on painting the old pieces since I’m not a fan of brass, but after some soap and water and a good scrubbing they looked like this:

I love the character and aged look so I decided to leave them as is.

I also covered the new drawer bottoms my dad cut with contact paper. I had already sanded down the inside of the drawers to make sure they were smooth, but this will help protect the tablecloths and other things from getting snagged.

Of course I did this with the help of Homie (can you tell he loves when I craft?)

My dad secured the new pine top on my dresser and I was originally planning on using a white wash and staining a design on top. I taped off the top and mixed a bit of tan paint, white paint, and water.

Once it was on, I decided it was too much of a contrast with the dark wood so I tried plan B. Instead of staining the design I put the vinyl cut outs on the top and stained over them. Similar to this table I saw at Christina’s Adventures!

I cut out the design using my Silhouette machine. It has definitely been worth the investment, the possibilities are endless with that thing!

After several days and coats of stain I was finally able to peel off the vinyl design and expose the lighter color underneath. The top also got a few coats of poly and I didn’t wait for the stain to be completely dry so the colors would kind of bleed into each other.

And here she is!

I still need to move the picture that is hanging behind her and decorate that corner, but I love how she turned out and I can’t wait to fill her with all kinds of fun things!

Not bad for my first serious restoration project. Have you redone any furniture lately?

I'm linking up to Primp, Catch a Glimpse Party, Show and Tell, and Thrifty Thursday!