Refinishing 101

This was our first attempt ever to refinish anything. And I would define it as a success.

Will had an old dresser he had used all through high school and college, and it had quite a bit of wear and tear on it. {Not to mention the new scratches on it from using it as a weedeater holder in the garage}

Our friend Brandon let us borrow his sander for our first project. {We weren't going to buy one if we weren't any good at this} We also used an old t-shirt for staining, gloves, sandpaper {120, 150, & 220 grit}, Miniwax Dark Walnut, Polycrilic to seal it, and a paintbrush to put on the poly.

We took all the drawers out and removed all the hardware. I sanded the little crevices while Will used the man tool starting with the top of the dresser. We panicked because it started to look like this when he started sanding. Not to worry, it turned out OK.

 It took about 3 hours total to get everything sanded on the dresser. Thankfully, it did not have too much detail so we didn't have to do too much by hand. We started with the 120 grit to get the finish off, then moved up to the 220 to smooth it over before we put on the stain. 

Not too bad, huh? I got antsy while Will was doing the last sanding all over it and I went ahead and stained the drawers. I took a piece of an old t-shirt, dipped it in the dark walnut stain, and spread it over the drawers in the direction of the grain. After I did the first coat on all drawers, I let it soak in for about 5 minutes and then wiped it off. It was a bit splotchy, but I loved the color of the stain.

We did the first coat on the dresser and it looked great. The second time around, I used a little less stain and didn't wipe it off. I know you are supposed to, but I liked what it looked like, so I left it. After we did the second coat on the dresser, we let it dry in the garage over night. 

The next day, we put the first coat of Polycrilic on the entire thing with the 3 inch paint brush. We let that dry for about 4 hours, then put another on. We let this dry overnight again. We moved it in the house the next night. And Wooooolllahhh! Isn't it beautiful!

I will post an updated photo when our pulls and knobs are on it. I can't seem to make a decision on which ones to get. The entire project cost us about $60. The Polycrilic was $17 of it, but it was worth it because you can wash it out with soap and water AND it doesn't smell like a regular poly. AND we have enough to do 0289730847 more projects! 

Happy refinishing ya'll.