When Sarah picked up this painted dresser for $25, she knew the bright red paint and mismatched knobs had to go. Since the red paint wasn't quite her thing, she immediately covered the dresser with a coat of citri-strip. Once that round of stripper revealed the mahogany beneath the paint, she knew her makeover would be both more complicated and more satisfying.
After stripping the entire dresser down to the underlying wood, Sarah pretreated the base and then stained with Minwax Dark Walnut. She gave the base a coat of poly to protect it from wear, then turned to the drawers. Unfortunately, they were covered with veneer and the wood underneath was nowhere near as attractive as the dresser base. Sarah opted to paint the drawers using Annie Sloane Chalk Paint (Duck Egg Blue) then waxed using a combination of clear and dark waxes.
Though removing every trace of that red paint was a chore, the beauty of the wood that Sarah revealed made all that work worthwhile. Sarah is happy with her new dresser, but is giving some though to reveneering the drawers in wood sometime in the future. In the meantime, she has created a lovely piece for her home and brought a vintage dresser back to life.
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(Images: Sarah/Imperfect Patina)
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Just beautiful!
Nice job -- and in a way, vindication for those many other makeovers where lots of us prefer the "before" unpainted version.
wow, very nice!....so much work...
I love the way she restored part to the natural look, and then the painted pits have that distressed look - lovely. WELL DONE.
Oh, that horrible "it's veneer" letdown moment! Know it well. Nice recovery though.
Wow how lovely (although I would have gone with a crisp white for the drawers)! Well done :)
The thought of the amount of work that had to go into getting that red paint off makes me cringe. I couldn't do it!!
Well worth the work, though. It's lovely.
I love the mahoghany top. The fronts just look dirty to me, though.
That must have been an unbelievable amount of work to get that paint off. Kudos to a job well done!
I actually like the red better. Maybe with a fresh coat and some new knobs. I don't like the two-tone look of the after.
Great choices--
Love that you stripped it down to the original wood! I inherited a dressing table that has great bones but an ugly coat of paint. I'm working up the courage to strip it down.
We bought a garishly painted desk that turned out to be mahogany underneath and yes it's a total score but yeah, stripping it was brutal (at least that's what my husband said, the wonderful man did the whole thing).
Nice job I must say! The knobs and drawers aren't to my taste but I've got nothing against two tone.
OMG. Did Sarah get this in San Diego? This could be my childhood dresser, last seen at my cousin's house in San Diego. Beautiful reno.
Good job! For once someone is not painting over nice wood. The paint on the drawers in the middle picture appears to be something near pea green. I prefer it to the blue but the blue is nice too.
That wood is actually walnut, not mahogany. Both are beautiful woods. Nice job!
This is the kind of post that makes me regret my small city apartment with no room to do this sort of thing. Beautiful.
Nice job, but I don't think it's just my aversion to shabby chic that makes me side-eye the distressed drawer fronts when paired with the impeccable job on the exposed woodgrain.... I guess I'm rooting for her going through with re-veneering.
@blueintuit
Is it really? Googling the woodgrains gets me nowhere. XD I suppose it's down to experience....
I like the after and I understand that the previous color or style probably didn't suit you but I have to say that I like that red. I think with a little knob replacing, maybe something dark brown or the likes, it would have been interesting
nicely done; hope to see results of re-veneering. partial to matching existing case, but true american mahogany is rare now (worth the effort).
Kind of disappointing. Not a big fan of the green drawers.
I love it! What are these "clear and dark waxes" that were used on the drawers?
Nice job....