Advice for refinishing antique empire dresser?
I picked up this old dresser which I LOVE but for the “update” it was given. I was pretty sure there was something special under the dark and likely gel stain they slapped on it. So I started stripping it. Using citrus strip and clean up with denatured alcohol. I was right, it's a beautiful veneer. I’ve stripped this thing twice, some parts 3 times and I can’t get all the original stain off, It doesn’t want to budge anymore!
And thats fine I love the color. now Im not sure how to proceed...I want to match the existing stain and tung oil it. But I don’t have a clue what stain color was used.....is it mahoganY? Dark walnut? Red oak? Cherry? Ugh no idea.
So my question is, will my plan work (applying best matching stain over what’s left) ? And also does anyone have a clue which color stain I should apply to get a good match?
heres what she looked like before I started:
And what I have now:
I REALLY don’t want to paint it, I’m so hoping I can instead restore some of her natural beauty. ANY advice would be very appreciated :)
Comments (863)
toats
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoVery cool! I took the liberty of posting a pic of the ceruse piece, hope that’s ok.
It’s really cool!
i have sold a couple really small paintings online but it’s so expensive to ship the large ones so I didn’t even offer them :/
I dream of having a small retail space to sell furniture, art and my knitted stuffs...find a partner with similar artistic interests to sell with me...one day....
toats
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Cleaning antique dresser drawers?
Comments (3)I have used Murphys for years with excellent results just make sure not to saturate the wood inisde the drawers wiping with a damp cloth with the solution. Leave open and let the wood dry. I agree that Pledge which is Silicone based is not the best course of action. For your polish on finished wood try something like "Old English" Furniture Polish available in most grocery stores....See Morerefinishing dresser with laminate top
Comments (13)Whew! I'm glad I found this post again. .I had forgotten where it was!. .I went to Lowe's today and looked a the primer. Bin is made by Zinsser. My furniture is not a semi-gloss. .it's more like eggshell. You can certainly get a semi-gloss, it would look great. What I painted was actually a bedroom suite I had when I was growing up, my daughter used it then I painted it for my granddaughter, daughter did not want it shiney at all. It really was not hard to do at all. Just took a little time. While I am thinking about it. .you can e-mail me if you have any other questions. .DBFireWife@aol.com Just in case I have trouble finding my way back here again. .Debbie...See MoreAdvice needed- furniture refinish project?
Comments (8)Hi Grad Girl 1. The problem with those pieces, and in general, with most pieces in the particular late-193Os style that's come to be known a 'waterfall', is not that they're veneer per se, but that they're often made of crummy veneer, applied--with glues that haven't held up well--to a crummy framework. Some styles are more prone to shoddy construction than other styles, and this particular style is one of the ones to watch out for. But veneer itself is not bad. High-quality veneered pieces can take refinishing without much problem, if you're careful. I know, because I've had a ton of pieces like that. Here's the thing about veneer: it started out as a way to stretch a given quanity of wood. Back in, say, 1820, a handsome piece of imported mahogany about the size of a fence post could be used as a vertical stile on an American Empire dresser, or as a table leg, or as the carved top crest of a sofa or to make a few rungs on a Grecian style chair. But by cutting that four-inch-thick piece of wood into thin slices only an eighth or a sixteenth of an inch thick, it could provide enough beautiful veneer to cover a more common, less expensive wood--like pine or poplar or oak, depending on where in the country the piece was made--and make an Empire secretary eight feet high, with perfectly matched drawer fronts with lustrous graining. Some of the greatest pieces of furniture ever made are veneered. But veneering is also a cheap way top cover up particle board with a slice of wood so thin you could read through it, which is the way a lot of furniture is made today. The only thing feeping that paper-this "wood" down is a thin layer of polyurethans. That is, plastic. On a piece like that, a gentle sanding can go right through the veneer & expose--well, whatever is under there. One popular manufacturer, having abandoned heavy, expensive-to-ship particle board-based-veneered shelving, is now offering shelves whose core is corrugated cardboard. Sure, it looks nice on the display floor, it's easy to carry out of the store & it's amazingly inexpensive, but nobody will be asking how to refinish that stuff in sixty years because it will have disintegrated long before that. Then again, a lot of people don't really care about that stuff, they just want something cheap. Anyway, somewhere in between the extremes of museum-worthy antique veneered pieces & trendy, here-today-gone-tomorrow pieces, there's plenty of older-but-decent-quality veneered furniture available for not much money, and some of it has your name written all over it. Your job is to find it. But how? The best way to get a fast education in old furniture is to go to a large antique furniture flea market--not to buy, but just to look. There, in one place, in one day, you'll see every style, high & low, every kind of construction, good & bad, solid wood & veneered, and it won't take you long to be able to tell what's what, so that, later, when you have only a photo on Craigslist to go by, you'll already have a pretty good idea of what it's like in real life. Then you'll be better able to gauge prices, not only based on what you can afford, but on what something's actually worth. Have fun on your search. Regards, Magnaverde....See MoreHow to refinish a dresser that's meant to be painted
Comments (4)I am guessing this piece is from the forties or fifties. It looks like it was originally painted a cream color with gold (metallic) details. It was also sprayed, not brush painted. I am just not a big fan of painted furniture. So, here's what I've done. -Just testing it out on 1 drawer. If it sucks, I'll just paint the thing white & be done with it. It's completely stripped. I did 1 coat of "polyshades" -Bombay Mahogany Then 1 coat "polyshades" -dark walnut Then final coat of polyshades -Bombay mahogany. Steel wool the hell out of it between coats. After the last coat I will sand it with 220, then put 2 coats of oil based varathane. The handles are solid brass, and look nice agianst the dark color. I know everyone hates polyshades, but I don't know what else I could have done, except paint it with paint, and that would not have looked good with the brass handles. The paint store guy told me polyshades is crap, (which I know) but if I use a good oil based varathane over it, it will just be providing even color. It's still not too late to talk me out of it. I have only done 1 drawer. I'll take pictures...See More
PROBeth H. :
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agotoats
6 years ago
PROFlo Mangan
6 years ago- PRO
Beth H. :
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago - PRO
Flo Mangan
6 years ago - PRO
Beth H. :
6 years ago 
rredpenn
6 years agotoats
6 years agotoats
6 years agotoats
6 years agoOk finally!!! If anyone is still awake...
im sure we all remember the before ugh:
And here’s the after, hoping you guys like it!
We had to move it to a different room, that has no windows at all, so the lighting is awful. It’s not quite as dark as the pics show, but best I could do with iphone.
Idk why but I adore the little handle. I ended up putting the keyhole cover back on after seeing how small the handle was.
As an afterthought I had a little fun with the inside of the doors. Prob should have stained in there but it was just a lil extra so....
Nevermind all my junk in there.
Tried to get a better close up of drawer pulls.
Anyway I had fun and learned a lot on this one :)
THANK YOU BETH!
toats
6 years agotoats
6 years agorredpenn
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6 years agotoats
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
ladma
6 years agotoats
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kootenaycapable
6 years agotoats
6 years agotoats
6 years agorredpenn
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoToats, Ima put this guy here so I can delete him from my desktop now... I saved it for you a while ago. Made me laugh. Have a sunshiny rainbowy fuzzy kind of day! :)
toats
6 years agotoats
6 years ago
shwshw
6 years agorredpenn
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agokootenaycapable
6 years agotoats
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stryker
6 years ago
Beth H. :