Weekend Project - Not!

Dave was away last weekend (March 2 &3) and I thought it might be a good time to refinish the dresser he is using in the cottage. I figured I could finish it in 2-3 days. The dresser is so old, I am sure the paint must contain lead. It is nicked and scratched and beat up. The drawer fronts sport wallpaper which is peeling and tired looking.

It was actually my sister who wallpapered the drawers, when she was in high school - that was in the 70's, as the pattern attests. Removing the paper was easy, it just peeled off.

Saturday Morning.
I open the can of paint stripper; smelling it's harsh fragrance I am immediately transported back to when I was in high school. My Dad bought me a discarded baby grand piano in a second hand store and we set about restoring it. Dad disassembled that piano in the basement and we began smearing paint stripper on all the wooden parts. I loved the way the paint wrinkled up and we could just scrape it off. I loved the strong smell. I loved having a project with my Dad. The piano took weeks and weeks to complete - it was a great father daughter bonding time.

On the dresser the paint wrinkles up just as it did on the piano and I am able to scrape it off easily. I am wearing latex gloves but I can still feel the freezing temperature of the stripper - it feels supernaturally cold. I remember that feeling from the piano project, too. Underneath the white paint is a coat of tan enamel paint which will need its own application of stripper, but wait! There are decals on the drawers depicting various nursery rhyme scenes...I remember these...this dresser was in my brother's room when he was a baby. I particularly remember the scene of Peter Pumpkin Eater; the girl in a beautiful dress sitting in the pumpkin. Too bad I scraped it off before I thought to take a picture. Here are Little Bo Poop - oops! I mean Peep! and Mary Quite Contrary. I wonder if my brother will remember these pictures...


Reluctantly, I scrape off the antique decals and resume the project; I have completed two small drawers and 2 large drawers; I am tired and lightheaded from smelling the stripper. I'll have to finish the project tomorrow.



Sunday. This has been a big day. I have alternated scraping and sanding on the drawers with drinking tea in the sun on the porch and learning a new Chopin Nocturne on the piano. The drawers each took two coats of stripper and a third to rub with steel wool. I have also sanded them; the wood is light and has a nice grain. Each time I go into the workshop the lyrical strains of Chopin in my brain accompany the rhythms of scraping and sanding, it is nice!

Saturday a week later...arms worn out from rubbing with steel wool and sand paper. The drawers were a piece of cake compared to the dresser body; it was, like...no fun. I had to lay the dresser on its sides and back to strip and varnish each surface because gravity makes these liquids drip if they are not on the level. Every coat of removal and re-application requires sanding and rubbing. I have goopy stripper mixed with paint on my clothes and stuck to the bottoms of my shoes.

The drawers looked great all varnished but the dresser still looks beat up and is actually rather ugly. I am a bit disappointed in the outcome. I thought I could transform it into something beautiful with a little hard work, but it would have been better if I had filled in the holes and dents on the top and edges. However, it looks pretty good in this picture!


I did order some little brass key hole 'escutcheons' to fill the gouged out key openings in the smaller drawers and they look very nice. Next time we go to Missoula I will look for some inexpensive (hopefully) brass drawer pulls; the ones I liked online are priced at $76.00 for 10!