Labor of Love

On my first trip to Blue Suede Shoes in Bryant, I fell in LOVE with a chest of drawers.  I despised the paint job and LOVED the lines of the mirror and legs.  That afternoon I was able to take Martin and show him my latest desire.  He was less than impressed with it.  The dresser was 100 dollars.  This is double my usual budget on a good "junking" day.  Needless to say, I had to beg and pester him with hints about how wonderful the dresser would look if I stripped it and painted it an antique white and distressed it.  In less than 24 hours, we were back at BSS purchasing the poorly painted piece of furniture.  Thank you Martin!

When we got it home I started to strip it with CitraStrip.  Immediately, the paint started to bubble.  This process usually takes 25-45 min complete.  With the first scrape of strip, a dark (almost black) varnish came through.  When we wiped it down, a beautiful cherry top wood was revealed.

Martin was suddenly and surprisingly willing to help out after finding out what a beauty we had :)

The process took longer than 20 hours to complete.  We ended up stripping the dresser 3 times.  Every surface was sanded with medium paper and a palm sander.  The palm sander is definitely my FAVORITE power tool!! We are currently borrowing our neighbor's and there are definite plans to purchase our own.  Maybe I can talk Martin into getting a pink one!

The pictures show the process.  We tried to document every step in detail.  With every step, we were flabbergasted at how great the piece looked and could only dream of how good it was going to look when we were completed.

Minwax Red Mahogany and SemiGloss Minwax Polyurethane was used in the staining process. 

We are still pleasantly surprised every time we walk into our bedroom and see this beautiful piece.  There will be may more labors of LOVE to come, but none will be as special as this first piece we completed together!  We will have this piece for years to come.