I went to an estate sale near closing time and they were giving away the rest of their items for FREE!! I have never been to such a sale…it was the day that my hubs, Trav, said, “this might be my worst nightmare”. He know when he sets his wife free at a free estate sale, there’s going to be more to add to our Jenga puzzle inside our house. Trav’s always right. I found this dresser for FREE! I missed out on another piece that was amazing but then found this one in a back room where I think others were missing it…lucky for me.
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I’ve always wondered what’s under the dirty looking yellowy paint of an old French provincial dresser. I decided to start sanding to see what I could find, and I found some amazing solid wood! There was a layer of yellow paint, white paint, veneer, another piece of veneer, and then I found the solid wood. Yayyyyyy!!!!!
I was determined to uncover this whole dresser…and I did, drawers and all!
I used my belt sander and orbital sander on the top to sand through all of the layers of veneer wood. The belt sander worked great to tear through all of those layers.
For the drawers, I decided to remove it the steamy way, right in my kitchen. It would have taken me 9 years to sand through all of the veneer on the drawers.
I explain more of how I remove veneer, in this post. it’s pretty satisfying to see all of the veneer come off. It’s not a super difficult process, just super slow. This time around, I scored the veneer a little and then sat a wet towel on the veneer overnight to try to loosen it more and that helped a lot!
Once I had all of the veneer removed from the top and the base of the dresser, I sanded off the rest of the residue that was left on the drawers and the top with 100 grit sand paper and then smoothed the whole dresser out with 220 grit. I added liquid barkeepers friend to the whole thing, let it sit for about 20 min and then sprayed it off with the hose. This helps to get rid of the “greenish” areas in the wood. After it dried, I thought I was nearing the end because all I envisioned doing was adding some stain.
I added some stain but thought it was a little too dark and blotchy, so then I tried to use wood bleach on top of the stain after it had dried. It’s not that it wasn’t pretty, but I felt like it was still too blotchy. I knew it would always bother me and thought maybe it was blotchy bc I didn’t use pre stain, so I sanded the whole thing down again and went through the entire process of using the barkeepers friend to remove the green on the drawers.
This time I decided to use prestain on the drawers. Turns out that after I used the pre-stain, the stain would not penetrate into the wood. I then sanded all of the drawers down to bare wood again. This time, after the drawers were sanded, I decided to use wood bleach on the entire dresser before I stained it again, meaning I needed to sand down the entire dresser base and top again so I could bleach that too.
This time I sanded the lines that were left from the strips of wood that made a rectangular shape right off of the drawers. I used the wood bleach and then tested out about 947 different stain combinations and didn’t like any of them. For some reason this wood was not very pretty, colorwise, when I would put the stain on it.
I finally decided to white wash and glaze, (as I did on this hutch), the dresser as I have done with many other furniture pieces in my home. I used a paint brush to apply the white wash and then wiped it off with a lint free cloth this time to make sure it penetrated the wood well and didn’t turn out streaky. Using a paintbrush meat all the difference! When I had done a test drawer with the white wash and glaze, I didn’t really like it because I don’t think I got a white wash on good enough. When I used the paintbrush first, it turned out great!
As you can see, I don’t give up easily. After trying 457 different things and refinishing it over and over, I finally looooooove it!!!!!
The smooth soft color is exactly what I was going for! I do think that using the wood bleach this time gave it a softer, and maybe lighter, color than other pieces of no no that I have used this technique on.
I didn’t want to continue on this piece after sanding it so many times, but I’m glad I did. I’m so happy with the end result!
We were thinking about using this as a bathroom vanity. I guess we will have to wait and see if that all works out.
The different variations in the wood give it so much amazing character.
I used European gold rub n buff on the hardware and it toned it down to the perfect shade of gold for this piece. I still need to seal it and will use this flat out flat general finishes sealer when I do.
Love it! What a lot of work. I never liked this type of furniture, but this is changing my mind. I like that you sanded the lines off the drawers!
Oh I love how this dresser turned out. I have a four poster bed that I bought online that want to do this to. I keep researching and reading all this info so that when I do it it won’t be too bad of a project. Thank you for all the good info here by reading your journey to finish this piece. It really is lovely.
Oh I bet that will be amazing Vicki! Thank you!!
Man you are awesome! Love how you keep at it til it’s what you love! It is absolutely gorgeous!
Wow wow and amazingly wow . You are a furniture miracle worker. It turned out BEAUTIFUL . I had the exact same pc years ago . Who knew ????♀️ Way to go girl ????
Very cool! It was so fun to “be along” for the process…without any of the elbow grease! Happy “free” “new” dresser. ???? Julie M.
Thank you Julie! I had fun even though it took forever
Wow!! Just wow! Amazing job Natalie!
First of all…you are AMAZING!!!!! The determination you have is something else . I think after the 5 or 6th time sanding it down I would have just painted the suckered…lol!!! I think it is a beautiful piece. Wherever you do think with it..it will be a conversation piece!!
Lorri ????
Simply awesome!! (although it wasn’t simple)???? Good job!
Thank you Susan! Definitely not a simple one on this one
This is amazingly beautiful!!!!!!
Thank you so much Leslie!
Natalie you just dont give up and I like that. If I had the room I would definitely be looking for a big ol french provencial dresser to try this on. Well.i will be just live vicariously thru you.
It’s hard for me to give up, i just have to keep on keeping on till I love it
Got some skills, Natalie! So awesome!
Thank you Jane!!
Wow firstly what an amazing find and free at that!!
The time and patience to uncover such a beauty is amazing. I would rather see this stunner in another space than a bathroom. It’s a show piece!
You have really impressed me.
I always look forward to your posts and you delivered!
Thank you Gail! We will have to see where it fits in in our house, maybe in a different space
You do such amazing projects!!! You’re so inspiring!!! Love your projects.. Look gorgeous!!!!!
I had a dresser exactly like that.. sold it a few years ago and that person, painted it and made it look fun. Love the beauty of the wood under neath that paint and veneer . Looks fabulous…. ????????
Sounds like a fun project for her ????
You are amazing. This is a beautiful piece now. Thanks for sharing your work!
Thank you Rose! So sweet of you!
Love, l love everything you redo!
Thank you, Linda! You’re sweet
Wow!!! Who would have ever guessed such beautiful wood would be under all the veneer. You did a fabulous job!!! Thanks for sharing such a unique piece of furniture and a unique job of refinishing it. Love, love it!!!!
Thank you Becky! I love all of that character under there
What whitewash do you use?