Before & After: Red Paint to Mahogany Dresser

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.

See More: Imperfect Patina: The Red Dresser

(Images: Sarah/Imperfect Patina)