If you’ve spent any time following my blog or instagram feed, you know I have a soft spot in my heart for antique furniture. I grew up with my grandpa’s painted antique dresser in my bedroom and wanted to freshen it up when I moved into my house a few years ago.

The dresser had a few layers of paint on it, so it was quite a process to remove all of the layers off of it. I found that the key was to let the stripper sit on the paint as long as possible before trying to scrape the paint off. The product I used was a milder paint stripper, but it still ate through multiple pairs of rubber gloves. I had to repeat the process multiple times to get all the layers of paint off and it is a really messy process- I would only do this outside, and with the ground covered with something you can throw away after.

The next step was sanding down the dresser. There was still some stain left in spots and I wanted to get down to bare wood so the new stain would look even. After hours of sanding with a palm sander and coarser sand paper, I then went over it with a finer sand paper to take out any scratches in the wood.

Finally it was time to stain! I used a dark stain with a red tint to bring out the color of the mahogany wood. I did 2 layers of stain and then finished with 2 coats of glossy varnish. *Editors note: I have since learned that there are great wood conditioner products out there that you should use before staining to help create more even absorption of stain.. live and learn.

I’m really happy with how beautiful it turned out and even happier that I was able to bring new life to a family heirloom piece.