First Dresser project

This was perhaps my first foray into the exciting world of refinishing. A lot of mistakes were made but also a lot of lessons were learned. I found this nice dresser while driving home from campus one afternoon in the late spring. Tallahassee is a classic example of a southern college town in many categories. With that comes the mass exodus of people following the conclusion of a semester. In the wake of all these people leaving town, a great deal of used furniture ends up left out on the curb either due to spatial constraints or lack of interest. This is the perfect time to find one of a kind pieces, that with a little attention and skill can be made awesome.

This specific dresser is a traditional pine model made by the drexel furniture company. My wife and I believe that it was made sometime in the 1980's and hadn't had much love until we got our hands on it.

The front of the dresser before any sanding. It had some really cool handles but, there was a lot of corrosion and one was completely broken.


A Drexel stamp on the inside of one of the top drawers.


After sanding the top and sides. I hate sanding.


The trim had been pulled off a portion of one of the bottom edges. So I sanded it down in order to replace the missing section.


Really had to clean the area up to make a smooth spot to replace the trim.


Used a router to get as close to the original trim as I could.


Finished it off with some heaps of wood filler.


For some reason a corner of the top trim was cut out. So I had to cut out a small filler piece, glue it in, add some filler then sand down.


The replacement corner


Sanding everything...


Did the drawers seperately


Once everything was sanded and patched up, the next step was to paint the trim. I figured it would be better to paint before staining in case I messed up. That way, I could just sand off the messed up paint as opposed to fully restaining and risking splotchy areas.


Same goes for all the drawers.


Skipped a few steps, but here is the finished product. We got the handles on sale at Ace hardware ($1 per good deal!) and really like how it shows off the wood.


That wood in the back is going towards another project.


I really like how the blue trime fits with the dark mahogony stain.


Finished Traditional Pine Dresser by Drexel