Finished Furniture Refinish

This is my (Chris) first post on the blog. This one probably won't be as entertaining as my beautiful bride's posts usually are so here goes.

I wanted to share some pictures and experiences I've had recently during a project to refinish some furniture that Tracy has had since she was a little girl and was in her bedroom as she grew up. We wanted to use this furniture in Sam's room but we needed to go with the lighter, natural wood look to match his new bed. A refinishing project was born.

First a few pics. Here are some "before" shots of the nightstand. Unfortunately, I did not grab any of the dresser and mirror before I started on them. The flash from the camera sort of blows out the the color that I started with. I would describe it as a light brown finish, just a little bit lighter than walnut.

And here are the "after" pictures. The natural wood on each piece is almost a dead match to the bed that we got for Sam. You can sort of see this in the reflection of the bed in the dresser mirror. (Oops.. should have cleaned that mirror before I started taking pictures.)

The nightstand turned into a real bear. I almost punted on it without finishing it. It had a laminate top which could not be stripped nor refinished. After a failed attempt to salvage the top by removing just the laminate part and replacing it with a thin piece of wood, I decided to try to build a new top out of birch. I think it turned out pretty good.

Below are a few things I learned from this project:

1. A good stripper is hard to find... wood stripper that is. I tried several different strippers from Lowes. I had the most success with a spray on stripper but it was a very expensive solution for such a large project. The best one I found was a paint on version. Unfortunately, I don't know the brand so if you want to tackle one of these projects, drop me a line and I'll let you know the exact brand I used.

2. Don't be afraid to sand it. A professional furniture refinisher would probably tell you to do more stripping and scraping and less sanding. This takes much longer but it maintains the integrity and the designs in the wood you are working with. I learned however that if you are working with primarily flat surfaces, strip the old poly off and get the sander out. Thanks to my father in law, I discovered the magic of the belt sander. It works really good for large flat surfaces.

3. About 3/4 of the way into the project (and/or you discover a laminate top on your nightstand) you'll probably wish you had just bought new furniture. I know I did. I can't tell you how many times I thought "why did I do this". But, stick with it. Older pieces of furniture are family heirlooms worth holding on to. Plus, for me it was cool to be able to put something in my son's room that I did that I think looks nice but more importantly will last for years.

In the end, Sam seems to like his new furniture. Of course at this age, he likes almost everything that you sit him on and take his picture... but that's beside the point.