When I decided to fix-up the guest room, I figured I’d need some paint and bedding upgrades, but I didn’t think there would be room in the budget for new furniture. Then I remembered my parents were looking to get rid of a pair of beat-up dressers my sister and I used as kids. We’re all grown up now and the dressers are empty!
More importantly, my dad used these dressers when he was a kid, too! I know - too cute, right? I knew I would rather rehab them than have them go to a stranger! My parents were going to give them away! I saw it as an opportunity to not only save something that had been in my family for years, but try my hand at furniture rehabbing, as well. Here is a shot of what we’re working with:
Charming, no? I love the carved detail at the bottom. They’re mostly solid oak, too. I love that they have the antique drawer pulls typical in classic American furniture, but they’re definitely in need of some work. I’ll have to track down some new hardware to replace the missing piece. Matt surprised me one day by taking initiative and starting in on the sanding process.
I love the next shot, because Matt’s using one hand to sand, and his other hand is just chilling in his pocket. He’s too cool for school.
As he started in on one corner of the dresser top, I started jumping up and down, because it was looking so beautiful - even sanded down to it’s raw wood state.
The process was definitely more time-consuming than we thought - sanding just one dresser took about 40 minutes. You know what they say though, the prep work of painting is the most important step, and often the most time-consuming. When all was said and done, look at the difference that sanding makes.
It started to rain, and so we stand with one sanded, and one waiting in the wings. I can’t wait to sand the other one and get started on this project but we have two problems to overcome first. One being an approaching Nor’ Easter affecting my prep space (the driveway) and two being that for the life of me, I cannot decide between staining these bad boys a very light stain or painting them. What would you do? If I do paint, I’m looking to pick a color similar to this palette.
Which color do you like? Here’s a shot of the wall color. Maybe “Greenbrier Beige” would look cool with the red accents in the comforter?
Hm. Decisions. Decisions.
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