The Plan

The plan of this blog is to show that "I can do it".... whatever "it" may happen to be. I have found that I love to take old things and make them into something useful and (hopefully) better looking! For example; the old dresser I found at St. Vincent's a month ago.  When My husband saw it, his first comment was: "What are you going to do with THAT?"  A reasonable question since our tiny house has no room for anything, and it wasn't exactly a beautiful piece of furniture.  BUT, it had gone on sale and I picked it up for $50.  I thought that was a good price. It appeared solid, as you will see, and dressers are expensive! Have you seen the price these used furniture shops put on old, beat up dressers?? It's ridiculous! So... I set out to make this one beautiful. (Or so I hoped.) Here is the adventure.

Very solid drawers and cabinet.  I didn't need to really do much in way of repair.

I have read in other blogs that the key to any project like this is "lots of sanding".  I think it is true. You have to be diligent in preparation. Sand, buff, sand, fill, sand, and sand some more!

I started with 60 grit.  I have read that this is probably too course, but I could not get thru the lacquer of this thing with 100. Once I seemed to "scratch" thru the surface, I switched to the 100, then 180, then 220.  In between sanding it was helpful to brush off with mineral spirits or even a tack cloth.  I had very sore knuckles and fingertips.

The nice part about all that sanding? An mp3 player loaded with books and Gordon Lightfoot's "Best of"... It was all very relaxing and wonderful.  I thought of the old dresser and who might have used it. It reminded me of my grandpa Hoefer (Mom's side) so I named him Francis, in honor of gpa!

I did use a palm sander for the larger areas, although the lacquer seemed to clog up on the paper and ... well... it just seemed easier to do by hand most of the time.

I was going to  change out the knobs for pretty brass or antique brass pulls.... then I priced them! Wowser. OK, first of all, they were an odd size. The screws holding them on were 2" apart instead of the standard 3" ones you find at Lowes or Home Depot.  A very helpful Home Depot salesman instructed me to search online and I found some. Not many, but some.  Most seemed to be little animals... cute... but not what I was looking for.  The one I kind of considered (althought it was not speaking to me, you know?) was $15.00.  EACH.  Note:  There are 2 per drawer, and 4 drawers.... I was a math whiz in school. That means, 8 knobs at $15 (not including shipping and tax) would run me $120.  Add the shipping and tax and it is 3 times what I paid for the dresser.  No thank you.

Intense sanding, some quick dipping, a little rubbing, seal with acrylic and put a coat on!  We were ready to go.!

The staining part was fun.  I used Minwax Special Walnut.  I love darker wood; but especially wanted to see the grain.  I had hoped the cabinet and drawers were of decent enough quality there would be grain to show!

There was.... and it was turning out pretty.  Then I used Minwax water-based Polycrylic seal (semi-gloss). with 3 coats.  I let it dry a couple of days before adding the knobs; and a few more days before allowing anything to be placed on it.  Just to be sure... 

I think "Francis" looks nice with my mother's picture, mother and father's wedding picture, husband's grandmother's clock, and old bible and study books from various ancestors on my dad's side.  (The dogbed is a nice drooled-on addition, too, don't you think??)