My love affair with my local Habitat ReStore is still going strong.
In early August I found a small dresser with brass accents at the ReStore. When I spotted those brass accents it was like the heavens opened up and angels began singing.
Honestly, I need to have this sort of reaction when I find a piece of used furniture in order to go through the herculean effort to get it home and refinish it.
We all have our barometers. Mine is angels singing. Totally normal, right?
As you can see, the dresser had a hutch on top that I still do not understand. It has the same brass edging as the dresser and it doesn’t have a base, but I don’t think it was actually a hutch because I don’t see where it was connected to the dresser. Also, the hardware on the hutch drawers don’t match the dresser. Confusing, right?
Some people ponder the mysteries of the universe. I ponder the mysteries of furniture. Infer what you want out of that.
The pieces were considered a “matched set,” so for $45 I brought them both home. I might turn the hutch, which weighs twice as much as the dresser, into a bookcase, but I’m still waiting for angels to sing mulling my options.
The very helpful gentleman at the Restore tried to load both pieces in my SUV, but they wouldn’t fit since I had the kids with me and couldn’t fold all the backseats down. In the process, they really gouged the front of the dresser (and the roof of my car). The dresser was already badly scratched, which is hard to tell from the pictures, but the gouge was Grand Canyon-sized.
I’m mentioning the gouge, not to knock the helpers. It was a total accident and not a big enough deal to even warrant a comment at the time. I mention it because it changed my approach to the dresser makeover.
Instead of a light sanding to buff out some of the scratches, I was going to have to sand a little deeper. The tricky part was finding balance between how much of the dresser’s original distressing to keep and how much needed to be removed in order to deal with all the damage.
I decided to wing it split the difference and do the best I could before I ran out of patience while still leaving a fair amount of the original distressing.
I’m sure some ‘accidental’ distressing will occur anyway because humans live in our house, so this was not a topic I was going to lose sleep over.
I stained the dresser and then tried to clean up the hardware. So far I’ve used Brasso and a salt/vinegar concoction with mixed results. Eventually, I’ll try tackling it again.
Here’s how the dresser looks now sitting in our living room.
I intended for it to go in my son’s room, but it’s filling a blank spot downstairs at the moment.
Ignore the pictures on top of the dresser. They are just sitting there while I work on a gallery wall that’s going nowhere.
This little dresser makes me so happy. If I’m feeling low on warm fuzzies, I just glance into this corner of the living room. I’m not even kidding!
For $45 (plus a hutch I didn’t want), I think this dresser and the time I spent on the makeover was well worth it.
Now to find my next project!
Products used in this dresser makeover:
- Ridgid Cordless Orbital Sander LOVE the cordless feature and the sandpaper sticks super well.
- 100-grit and 220-grit sandpaper from Diablo.
- 2 coats of Varathane interior stain in a dark walnut finish.
- 1 coat of a mixture of Varathane interior stain in a dark walnut finish and Varathane polyurethane in semi-gloss.
- Shop towels for rubbing in the stain.
- Chip brush
- Painter’s tape for protecting dresser hardware
- Brasso Multipurpose Metal Polish
Products shown in photo:
- DIY Vintage Key Art
- Leather and Brass Stool – HomeGoods find
- DIY Leather Wrapped Rock Paperweight
- Safavieh 8×10 Rug – Monaco Collection Bohemian Navy
- Peace Lily It says it’s not in store, but I bought mine in store.
- Small bird drawing – thrifted
- Empty frame – thrifted
- Dun Laoghaire, Ireland Painting by Jim Scully
*affiliate links used in this post*
Here are some other makeovers you might enjoy!