I wish I was a little less excited about this reveal alas I'm not. It was my first furniture project and so I was SUPER slow at it and went a little crazy with making sure everything was great. I love the way it turned out. First a little bit of history.
This dresser belonged to my great great grandmother. She used it most of her life and passed it down to her children, who passed it to their children who gave it to their kids and grand kids. Needless to say I was a little worried to tryout my new hobby on a piece that means so much to many people. I hope they like it. If not they can rush my house and steal it out of my tea room. Bring it.
Before I show ya'll the results I have to share my favorite part of the dresser.
That is my great great grandmother's handwriting on the back of the dresser. I can't tell you how many times I have run my hand over that signature and wondered about her history and the stories this piece could tell.
When I was 13 I wrote a message on the bottom drawer hoping that someone would find it and run their hands over it and wonder about my story. This seems doubtful but darnit I love my rose colored glasses.
Alright here we go. Hope you like it, If not...good thing it's not in your house.
BEFORE
AFTER
It literally took 3 or 4 hours just to sand the top down enough to stain it. I learned a few things during that time mainly I HATE SANDING. It gets everywhere, on everything and that noise makes me feel like I need to go see my dentist. However the wood absorbed the stain beautifully and the Dark Walnut stain looks amazing.
Notice the smile on my face at the BEGINNING of this project. Oh and how long my hair was!
I wanted to do something fun with the drawers but didn't quite have the guts to go all crazy tiger on over a hundred year old wood dresser. Call me crazy! I thought the stripes would bring it up to current day design without offending my vintage taste. I just taped off a few straight lines with plain old painters tape and BOOM! Stripage.
I purchased new knobs to better support the continual pulling motion since the little handles were starting to wear on the wood. The knobs were the most expensive part of this whole project it also took almost 2 weeks to get here! But boy are they heavy and solid! She's a brick house is playing in my head right now. Aren't they pretty?! She's mighty mighty, lettin' it all hang out...sorry.
We are using the dresser/buffet to hold our DVDs right now but I have high hopes to keep this dresser in our family for another century. Which means it probably has many restorations coming her way. Little nip here, little tuck there. Hopefully she doesn't turn out like Lisa Marie Presley. Whoo! Poor girl.
This dresser belonged to my great great grandmother. She used it most of her life and passed it down to her children, who passed it to their children who gave it to their kids and grand kids. Needless to say I was a little worried to tryout my new hobby on a piece that means so much to many people. I hope they like it. If not they can rush my house and steal it out of my tea room. Bring it.
Before I show ya'll the results I have to share my favorite part of the dresser.
That is my great great grandmother's handwriting on the back of the dresser. I can't tell you how many times I have run my hand over that signature and wondered about her history and the stories this piece could tell.
When I was 13 I wrote a message on the bottom drawer hoping that someone would find it and run their hands over it and wonder about my story. This seems doubtful but darnit I love my rose colored glasses.
Alright here we go. Hope you like it, If not...good thing it's not in your house.
BEFORE
AFTER
It literally took 3 or 4 hours just to sand the top down enough to stain it. I learned a few things during that time mainly I HATE SANDING. It gets everywhere, on everything and that noise makes me feel like I need to go see my dentist. However the wood absorbed the stain beautifully and the Dark Walnut stain looks amazing.
Notice the smile on my face at the BEGINNING of this project. Oh and how long my hair was!
I wanted to do something fun with the drawers but didn't quite have the guts to go all crazy tiger on over a hundred year old wood dresser. Call me crazy! I thought the stripes would bring it up to current day design without offending my vintage taste. I just taped off a few straight lines with plain old painters tape and BOOM! Stripage.
I purchased new knobs to better support the continual pulling motion since the little handles were starting to wear on the wood. The knobs were the most expensive part of this whole project it also took almost 2 weeks to get here! But boy are they heavy and solid! She's a brick house is playing in my head right now. Aren't they pretty?! She's mighty mighty, lettin' it all hang out...sorry.
We are using the dresser/buffet to hold our DVDs right now but I have high hopes to keep this dresser in our family for another century. Which means it probably has many restorations coming her way. Little nip here, little tuck there. Hopefully she doesn't turn out like Lisa Marie Presley. Whoo! Poor girl.
