Last month I purchased a nightstand and dresser set through Craigslist from a guy in Baltimore. He said they were from around 1915 and belonged to her grandmother, who'd lived in Westchester NY.
I've been looking for simple bedroom furniture for over a year. I came thisclose to spending a lot of money on a gorgeously restored dresser and then somebody else purchased it. Suddenly a listing for some decent-shape antiques caught my eye so I decided to use the nightstand for practice and then I will fix up the dresser at a later time.
I purchased a stain product that is supposed to bind to pre-existing top coat but the old varnish was so worn and old that it practically fell off with the lightest touch of sand paper. It didn't take long to bring the entire piece back to bare wood.
After filling some minor cracks and deeper gouges I sprayed the whole thing with shellac. At this point the nightstand took on a seriously bright yellow color that is almost certainly indicative of oak construction.
I used a super dark gel stain for the first time. It was kind of scary but really easy to use. After that I applied two coats of polyurethane. I like to have a glass of water nearby so I thought using an oil-based poly would be a good idea.
The inside of the drawer was pretty ugly and stinky so I painted it with a nice clean linen acrylic. Combined with all of the stain and poly dry time this project took me about a week from start to finish.
I'm really happy with how it turned out and feel like I've got a good handle on how to approach the dresser.
Whoa there, yellow!
Gel stained
Polyurethane application
