This is a tiny little dresser – about 18″ wide and only about 12″ deep. I guess it would be called a lingerie dresser or lingerie chest?
A “disaster dresser” to begin with.
Look at the destroyed top!
Missing knobs, chipped drawers – and what you can’t see inside, is that the drawer bottoms are all warped from moisture as well. (that’s why the bottom one won’t close)
I have no idea why I decided to tackle this lingerie chest, other than the fact that I love a challenge, and at $10 I had nothing to lose – although I clearly over-paid.
Wait till you see it finished – you won’t believe it’s the same piece!
I stripped off all the old varnish and stain (or what was left of the previous varnish and stain) and sanded out all the nicks, scratches and water marks and found that there was a pretty decent base underneath.
Dressers, desks and nightstands are easy to refinish. If you’ve thought about it at all – these pieces are where you should start.
Straight edges, flat surfaces – no elaborate stripping or sanding needed to clean it up.
Usually, you don’t have to do much work to the inside at all.
Just make sure that you sand down around the drawer openings so that the old finish won’t show when the drawers are open and closed.
In the case of this lingerie chest though, it did require new drawer bottoms – a simple fix really. Cut your new drawer bottoms from ¼” ply to the same size as the bottoms you’ve just pulled out. If your lingerie chest (or dresser or desk) has a dado lip – a notch cut out to slide the drawer bottom into – just slide your new piece into place and glue or nail it to keep it solid.
I didn’t keep track of the time, but I think I’m correct in saying it took about an hour and a half to sand down the entire piece.
I still have some of the grey Cabot stain left from this post, so I thought I’d use it on this piece as well.
This is the first coat:
For me, this lingerie chest looks a bit blotchy and uneven, so after the first coat completely dried, I applied a second, then a third…
Hard to believe this is the same top from the first photo of my lingerie chest?
If only I had this much underwear to actually “need” a lingerie chest.
Have a great one!
I just love your blog. Your refinishing furniture talent is amazing. You have no fear! Good job.
Thank you so much! It’s easy to be fearless when you have nothing to lose – most of these pieces were free and pretty dire.
100% GORGEOUS. Absolutely gorgeous.
Thank you very much! I did end up selling this one, and I’ll be honest and say that I’ve been kicking myself ever since. lol