Older furniture was built to last.
And it’s that kind of durability that makes it so hard for us to let go of antique furniture and heirloom pieces.
But we don’t have to if we know a good furniture refinisher.
Or if we’re willing to roll up ourselves and get our DIY on.
There are lots of great how-to videos that show you how to makeover a piece of furniture.
It’s amazing how you can completely transform the furniture in your home with just a new coat of paint.
April Bee takes us through a project she did for one of her clients.
The client asked to have an old beat-up dresser made over so she could put it in her baby’s nursery.
The finishing results was a gorgeous modern looking piece that would likely cost a pretty penny in the store.
Bee’s first order of business was to remove all of the drawers and their hardware.
Once they are removed, she adds dollops of citrus stripper across the face of her drawers.
The citrus stripper will remove any paint, stains, or other coatings that was on the furniture allowing the original wood to come through.
She spread the citrus stripper out with a paintbrush so everything is evenly coated.
Bee uses a putty knife to scrape off the globs of gunk the stripper creates.
You’ll need a garbage can or some kind of recepticle for all that gunk.
You’ll likely have to apply more stripper as you go.
Next, Bee covers her drawers in lacquer thinner.
Lacquer thinner will deactivate the stripper so that it doesn’t continue to eat away at the wood.
The lacquer thinner is applied by pouring it onto the drawer and then spreading it out with a microfiber cloth.
Bee decided not to sand the body of the dresser since it was in good shape and didn’t have any major dings, dents, or scratches.
Sander deglosser will take away any glossiness left behind by a previous coat and does a light sanding job.
She did, however, sand the drawers with an electric sander and 120 grit sandpaper.
She then hand sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper.
Blue painters tape was then put on the drawer stops and slides so that they wouldn’t get covered in paint or primer.
A tact cloth was used to wipe down the body of the dresser before it was sprayed with a primer using an airbrush paint machine.
While that was drying, Bee decided to rub her drawers down with some pre-stain.
It’s not a necessary step but it creates more depth in the stain.
The stain is rubbed on with a clean cloth and then rubbed off with a new cloth.
The same process is repeated with the regular stain.
The stain used was a color called “Java” and Bee had to work quickly since the stain was thick and dried very fast.
The body of the piece was painted in a high gloss white finish.
The entire piece also had polyacrylic and polyurethane top coats applied to them.
New modern gold knobs and drawer pulls were installed to finish off the piece.
Bee and her client were extremely pleased with how the dresser makeover came out.
It looks like an entirely different piece!
You can get the details on this project in the video below.
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