Make It Yourself Monday - Old Dresser Part 1

I'm here with another Make It Yourself Monday! Today I'm going to show you the old dresser I've been working on. When we started emptying and demoing our house in April 2009, this dresser was on the porch and in pretty poor shape. It was very dirty and roughed up but I wanted to keep it. Who can resist a piece of furniture that you already own and would be great storage?! We moved it to the barn but forgot to cover it. I pulled it out late this summer and started cleaning it up. I decided to strip the old lacquer and stain/varnish and whatever else was on it and refinish it. 

You can see that I've stripped the left side but not the right. It's not going to look brand new by any means because the top and the curved legs have wood laminate on them and were already in pretty rough shape when I started. I plan on replacing the wood drawer/door pulls with some new antique looking pulls. 

One tip for old furniture with old finishes (and for any furniture that has vertical surfaces) make sure that you use a semi-paste stripper. It will cling to your surface better. As soon as the stripping process is done, I give the whole piece a good sanding and I'll stain with a medium-dark stain with a bit of a reddish tint probably. 

Thanks for checking out this weeks MIYM! If you have any furniture refinishing tips, please fee free to share them here! I'd love to see any pieces that you have finished!