Furniture Refinishing - Part 1

At a neighbors estate sale, I was blessed to be able to find these 2 older pieces. One is a dressing table (or vanity table) and a tall chest of drawers. I bought the chest first and then the next day they had added the matching dressing table. The daughters talked about remembering it from their Grandmas house. I remember my Grandma had one too. After seeing it and all the memories it held, all I could think about was my girls sitting at it making their own memories. So my sweet family made it a birthday present. I was so excited that I didnt take very good before pictures before I started working on it.

This is the dressing table. It has a large framed rectangle mirror that goes between the upright bars. The top has a large area of water damage and that has been a very good learning experience for me.



This is the chest. I love the lines - not too many but just enough to add to the character of the piece. Both pieces have spindle like legs in the front.


Here are both pieces stripped. I used Minwax Furniture Refinisher on the dressing table and Zinler (name may be wrong) on the chest. Love the Minwax but it was 3 times as much as the other. I used 0000 wool pads and the refinisher to remove the finish. The color of the natural wood is gorgous - has a beautful red tint to it.




The dressing table, the top is going to be a little tricky as I have never redid a piece like this. I did a good bit of research on bleaching the wood but never found the same answers. Everyone has a different opinion about it. I also didnt trust my self to sanding not knowing how deep the stain went.




In a couple of days, I will post more on what I did with the pieces.