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Mid Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished

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My attempt at stripping and refinishing this mid century modern dresser should have been called:

“The Mid Century Modern Mishap”

It’s my biggest fear whenever I start a project: that I’ll mess it up somehow.

(Yes, we bloggers have those fears, too. You’re not alone).

Especially for me when it comes to stripping and refinishing.

Stripping furniture and refinishing is an art, and you really have to know what you’re doing to get quality, professional results. The more I learn about wood, the more I’m adoring wood tones. I really want to master this thing called “wood refinishing.”

Mid Century Modern Dresser Makeover

 

Call this dresser my latest DIY experiment in refinishing.

Or rather, instead of an “experiment,” let’s call it a “gentle DIY fail.” HA!

This mid century modern dresser had been sitting in my garage for awhile, but prior to that, I had used it for my basement office makeover to hold my television.

BEFORE

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - This is the BEFORE, from the thrift store. - Thrift Diving

 

AFTER

The bright side of this mid century modern dresser makeover is that you can finally see the gorgeous veneer grain!

What you don’t see in this picture is the spottiness, along with the unevenness of how to tung oil soaked into the wood.

Keep reading.

I’ll tell you everything that happened. LOL

Or better yet, watch the 13-minute explanation in my YouTube video.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - This is the AFTER. - Thrift Diving

 

The Amazing Discovery

I first found this dresser for a “whopping” $24.99 at my favorite thrift store.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Finding dressers at the thrift store. - Thrift Diving

 

It had sat in my garage for years, waiting for a makeover.

The taller of the two dressers got a gorgeous makeover with tung oil and white paint, but I really wanted to practice my stripping and refinishing skills on this longer one.

No paint was gonna touch this beauty.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - The dresser was in good condition but needed refinished. - Thrift Diving

 

The top was pretty marred, so stripping and sanding seemed to be the best option.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - The dresser was in good condition but needed refinished, especially on the top. - Thrift Diving

 

Materials Used

(I participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites).

I’ve stripped furniture before on smaller scales, so I knew what materials to pull together:

 

STEP 1: Removed All of the Drawers

The easiest way for me to strip this dresser is to remove all 9 drawers and set them out on a tarp.

Stripping is a suuuuuper messy job!

Trust me–I’ve learned my lesson. Put down a tarp (as a reader suggested) to protect your floors or ground. LOL

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - The drawers have to be removed before refinishing. - Thrift Diving

STEP 2: Apply the Furniture Stripper

I’ve been using this soy stripping gel lately and I like it a lot. I used it on the drafting table that I stripped and refinished, and I love how it worked. I notice that it doesn’t have the same strong odor that many other strippers have. I’ve used Citristrip before and that is made to smell citris-y, but even Citristrip, if sniffed for too long, starts to make me feel a bit sick to my stomach.  The Blue Bear Paint & Urethane Stripper never makes me feel ill and isn’t strong-smelling.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Blue Bear furniture stripper is safe and doesn't smell bad. - Thrift Diving

 

I slathered on a coat, let it do its job, and–BOOM!–removed it with the dulled-down putty knife (so it doesn’t gouge the wood) after about 15 minutes.

Be sure to work in sections because you don’t want it drying on your wood!

You will likely have to do two applications and removals of this stuff, FYI!

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Apply the furniture stripper to the surface. - Thrift Diving

 

After the first pass-through with the putty knife, you can see there was a lot of gunk still left.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Strip off the chemical stripper- Thrift Diving

 

Once the second coat is applied and scraped off, use After Wash to clean off the residue from the stripper.

 

STEP 3: Sand, Baby, Sand!

Oooh, and I tried to be soooo careful this time.

In the past, I’ve been known to move my orbital sander of a piece of wood at lightning speed.

But all that does is leave lots of swirly “pigtails” in your wood: round, annoying, circular scratches that look horrible once you apply any type of stain or finish!

So for this project, I had slowed it down to about 1 inch per second, letting the sander do its job and not forcing it.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Use an orbit sander for furniture stripping. - Thrift Diving

 

The top looked pretty good, but I’ll be honest–I was a little worried about the quality of the sanding I had done.

Did I miss any spots…?

Was it evenly sanded?

How would it look once I put tung oil on it??

The First Problem

The first problem I encountered was after sanding the body was realizing that the front edges of the dresser had no veneer.

Which means, tung oil applied there wouldn’t have the same result as it would when rubbed on the veneer.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - What to do when you don't have wood veneer on your furniture. - Thrift Diving

 

Once the rounded drawer pull areas were sanded, I found they were also going to be mismatched from the rest of the dresser, too.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Sand the crevices. - Thrift Diving

 

To fix the problem of mismatched wood, I used Mahogany Gel Stain on the edges and on the curved pulls, which worked beautifully!

The reddish tones were a perfect match to the color of the veneer once the veneer had tung oil applied!

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Apply gel stain to dresser. - Thrift Diving

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Stripped dresser. - Thrift Diving

 

I also applied the gel stain to the sanded drawer edges where there was no veneer.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Add gel stain to the drawer fronts. - Thrift Diving

 

In the meantime….ugh….9 drawers…..

That doesn’t just sound like a lot; it is a lot! LOL

I made sure that I wore hearing protection because having the sander run that long started to grate on my nerves!

Of course, don’t forget to protect your lungs. Even the smallest of particles stay floating around after sanding!

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Sanding the drawer front. - Thrift Diving

I love sanding inside of drawers and on the sides, too, when they’re a bit messy or yellowed!

Here, you can see that old stain from the previous finishing was cleanly removed with my sander.

These drawers were awesome because the sides were made of oak! That’s great quality right there!

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Sand the sides of the drawers to refresh the wood. - Thrift Diving

 

On the inside fronts, I quickly sanded those, too, to make the insides clean.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Sand the sides of the drawers to refresh the wood. - Thrift Diving

 

The effort was worth it because the beautiful veneer shined through!

I couldn’t wait to get tung oil on these drawers!

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Sand the fronts of the drawer after stripping. - Thrift Diving

 

STEP 4: I Applied the First Coat of Tung Oil

This is where I think things started going wrong.

First of all, I have used tung oil before and have had great results. But it’s been a while. I love the way it naturally deepens the color of the wood without obscuring the grain.

I followed the instructions: mix 50% tung oil with 50% mineral spirits for your first coat, let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then wipe off, the bottle said.

 

But here was the first problem: this brand of “green” mineral spirits is milky! 

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Don't use the "green" version of mineral spirits when mixing it with tung oil. - Thrift Diving

 

I didn’t pay this any mind at first…

(Keep reading to see why this may have mattered…)

The “wet wood” look was emerging and I was ready to wave my “Bad Mamma Jamma” flag for refinishing such an awesome piece….

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Applying tung oil mixture. - Thrift Diving

 

…that is, until it started to dry, and I realized that the top didn’t look quite so lustrous.

It looked a bit dull, actually.

What happened to that rich-looking wood????

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Stripped dresser top. - Thrift Diving

 

The next day, I also noticed spots that I would have bet money on that I had sanded away, but somehow, they’d mysteriously reappeared after 24 hours.

At this point, my “Bad Mamma Jamma” flag was starting to waver.

How was I going to fix that??

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Stripped dresser top with a scratch. - Thrift Diving

 

STEP 5: I Got the “Brilliant” Idea to Add a Top Coat

This is where things really started to go wrong.

Typically with tung oil, it’s a light finish that can take many coats. I’m talking maybe 7 coats (spaced our day 24 hours) so that you get maximum shine, which is what I wanted.  And pure tung oil can take up to a full week to fully dry! GASP.

But the thought of spending up to 7 days of pulling this bulky piece of furniture out of my garage to apply coat after coat–um, yeah, no thanks. I’d like to keep it movin’.

So I got the “brilliant” idea to add coats of General Finishes ARM-R-SEAL Oil & Urethane over top the tung oil.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - General Finished Arm-R-Seal - Thrift Diving

 

While I researched that that can be done, it shouldn’t have been done until well after the tung oil dried, which could have been weeks!

I naively proceeded.

At first, I thought it was going to turn out well.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Wet wood look with topcoat. - Thrift Diving

 

But once it dried, the following day it was clear that something has gone awry.

The drawers look dried out, with “wet” looking glossier edges.

The result left me disappointed and scratching my head on what to do next.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Drawer edges turned out spotty. - Thrift Diving

 

I tried using some 0000 very fine steel wool to even it out.

SIGH…… lol.

Don’t you hate these kinds of projects where things just go wrong??

 

STEP 6: I Tried Adding Another Coat of Oil & Urethane

I thought that maybe my application method is what contributed to the spottiness of the finish.

So I got the second brilliant idea to add a second coat the following day, using a foam brush, using the brush to wipe away some of the excess finish.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Adding coats of topcoat. - Thrift Diving

 

And instead of waiting to see what result I would have on the drawers, I went ahead and added the urethane to the dresser body.

The gel stain looked amazing, and the oil-based urethane went over it very well.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Adding coats of topcoat to the front of the dresser. - Thrift Diving

 

While it was wet, it looked great!

I just didn’t realize that it would look crappy once it dries! LOL

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Top coat dries over the surface. - Thrift Diving

 

Stripping and Finishing the Mid Century Modern Dresser Legs

I always dread stripping and finishing round objects.

But these legs were easy enough!

I made a little jig out of scrap wood that allowed the legs to stand up while getting stripped and refinished!

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - How to strip furniture legs easily standing up. Drill holes in scrap wood and insert legs. - Thrift Diving

 

It’s much easier when legs can’t fall over and don’t need to be held!

This is a good tip for when you’re spray painting, too. 🙂

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - How to strip furniture legs easily standing up. Drill holes in scrap wood and insert legs. Works well with furniture stripping or spray painting. - Thrift Diving

 

The Stuff You Didn’t See…

Becuase this post is already long enough, I’ll spare you any more pictures of the process I went through trying to rectify the wrongs of this projects.

But it goes a little something like this:

Serena realizes the oil-based urethane was a mistake.

Serena has to re-sand the whole dresser and 9 drawers.

Serena applies 2 more coats of tung oil to try to fix her mistake.

Serena is disappointed that it still doesn’t look perfect, but is glad it’s better. 

Serena is done. Done!

Serena doesn’t want to look at another piece of wood furniture for quite some time. HA!

 

The Grain is Pretty, But……

As much as my brain goes GAGA over the amazing grain of this mid century modern dresser, my brain can’t also accept that the finish isn’t perfect.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Before and after. - Thrift Diving

 

The top is very spotty.

At this point, I don’t know what’s worse: the scratched “BEFORE” shot or the spotty “AFTER” shot. LOL

BEFORE

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - BEFORE PICTURE. - Thrift Diving

 

AFTER

Let’s look at the bright side: the side veneer is rather striking, isn’t it??

After removing the old finish, now you can actually see the awesome pattern of the veneer.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - AFTER PICTURE. - Thrift Diving

 

I’ve considered just painting the body white to cover up the mishap.

But I feel like that would be a cop-out.

Nope. I must live with this and figure out why it happened so it never happens again.

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - AFTER Picture of the dresser. - Thrift Diving

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Gorgeous walnut wood dresser. - Thrift Diving

 

I couldn’t figure out why the drawers looked so ashy. I did a

I’m guessing it was the bad mix of tung oil and urethane.

I can’t be certain.

But you can see the oily spots.  How disappointing!

 

BEFORE

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - The dresser was in good condition but needed refinished. - Thrift Diving

 

AFTER

I’m thinking that once the oil has fully tried, I’ll go back with a wax or maybe another topcoat to see if I can add a wet-looking shine that will make it less noticeable.

At this point, I think I may have to take a trip to the woodworking store and get some suggestions on how to fix this.

It’s bothering me. LOL

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Pretty wood grain in dresser makeover. - Thrift Diving

 

What Went Wrong

It very well could be that all mineral spirits aren’t equal.

The “green” mineral spirits I used may have contributed to the ashy, cloudy appearance of the wood.

Mixing my tung oil with that brand of “green” mineral spirits could have contributed to part of the problem.

 

Possible Fixes

The question is, will I attempt to fix this, or will I keep it movin’?

I could:

  • Paint the body white. I could just cop-out and paint the outside body white, leaving the drawers wooden. But part of me feels like I need to figure this out before taking the cop-out. Isn’t that what learning is about?? 🙂
  • Add another top coat after the tung oil dries. Once fully dried, I might be able to add a wet-looking top coat to give it some shine.
  • Keep adding more coats of tung oil. I did some research and it appears that it is ashy because the wood is soaking up the oil. More coats of tung oil may even it out as the tung oil soaks in. Do I have the patience for this, though? What if it doesn’t work?

I’ll figure it out…

In the meantime, I’ve enjoyed the process, even if it made me want to rip out my hair. 🙂

And you have to admit…..ashy or not, that’s some pretty doggone grain!

Wouldn’t you agree??

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Pretty wood grain in dresser makeover using tung oil. - Thrift Diving

 

Mid-Century Modern Dresser Makeover Stripped and Refinished - Pretty wood grain in dresser makeover using tung oil. The grain is gorgeous! - Thrift Diving

 

So there you have it, folks: although my mid century modern dresser makeover didn’t go exactly as planned, it still turned out pretty nice. That grain is absolutely to die for!

The mid century modern dresser makeover is going back down to my pretty basement office. 🙂 I store crafting supplies in it!

So…..have you ever done a mid century modern dresser makeover?  And do you prefer furniture stripping or painting furniture? 

 

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65 Comments

  1. Debbie Raggio says:

    DON’T paint it!! The wood is beautiful. I have never mixed tung oil before. from the pictures it looks great , but if you’re not happy I would try stripping again . Good luck!!

  2. I am so sorry this had to happen…to such a truly conscientious DIYer. I felt this level of frustration rise as I read what happened. As I saw the white I felt like crying. I got frustrated again because you’d already spent so much time on this. Then I ?. It is the WOOD’s fault. You see, you did not choose the wood. You have no control over what was put on the wood and soaked in and sanding doesn’t “erase” it. At this point I’m impressed you could write about it. Hubby’s asleep ? or I’d have watched movie. Listen to wise counsel–and that would not be any suggestion of mine!! I’ve never ever done anything like your project!!! As my Mom would say, you get A+ ?

    1. Hi, Gwen! Yes, let’s blame it on the wood! LOL. Actually, the more I think about it, I do believe there were two problems: the “green” mineral spirits I used, and the fact that I didn’t allow the tung oil to fully dry before trying to coat it with the urethane. Oh well! I will likely try to sand it smooth again and see what happens! At this point, it’s totally a “practice” piece. Sanding shouldn’t take long because the nasty finish is all gone. Thanks for commenting, Gwen!

  3. First of all, absolutely gorgeous!! You did a fantastic job. That grain is incredibly impressive. 😀 We have a dresser with bird’s eye maple veneer, and I kind of want to refinish it now. <3
    Second, the after looks perfect to me EXCEPT for the top, where you can see the waxy/white/ashy/spottiness/etc. It's the only spot that will be getting that kind of light reflected off of it, so I'd say ignore the rest of the piece and just focus on fixing the top.
    Third, I read a little about potential problems (as I'm positive you have!) and it looks like the biggest problem could have been topcoating the tung oil too quickly, and the mineral spirits. Here's a handy link, with a step-by-step process a little further down: http://forums.finewoodworking.com/fine-woodworking-knots/finishing/dull-lifeless-surface-tung-oil
    Soo… I'd say strip the top only, put on your tung oil (look up a more reliable mineral spirits or a kind of tung oil you won't need to add it to), and just let the puppy sit in your garage for a few weeks. Then try your topcoat. 😀 If it turned out fine, huzzah! If not, resist the urge to throw it out and just do a white paint stencil over the top or something to hide the imperfections/paint the whole top white. You live and learn! It is a gorgeous piece, though. 🙂 Good for you for staining it, not just painting it!
    As for things that I've done that didn't turn out… 99% of my furniture painting experiences. And my floors. And my trim. And my window curtains. And decoupaging my drawers. Nothing ever turns out according to plan around here, I just learn to live and learn. 😀 My dresser alone took like 2-3 weeks of painting coats, sanding, accidentally sanding too much off, painting, top coating, top coating, top coating, some of the top coat came off, sanding, painting, top coating… ETC. Same story with my bookcase. If I'm going to be honest, my misery with painting is what's REALLY turned me into a wood lover, LOL!

  4. Personally I think it is beautiful but, I am a novice so what do I know. 😉 I wonder if using a wax would give you a shine with out the multi layers of oil needed. as far as the not wanting to drag the dresser out every day for days my first thought was you need to build yourself a low rolling platform to put large things on use locking wheels or blocs to stop it from rolling away. then it would be easy to pull in and out every morning and evening.

  5. Linda Weeks says:

    good learning experience, but surely there are folks who will admire the finish even if you aren’t pleased with it yourself. I took some loose veneer off of a piece of furniture one time, only to find it was really important when I went to finish it… had to sand and sand, and it never looked quite right… now it is a piece that I use for tool storage in the basement! at least it’s handy to have for that. Keep up the good work!

  6. Susan Koppen says:

    WOW! You certainly had a tough time with the dresser, but it looks absolutely AMAZING! The wood on the front of that dresser is so pretty but was hidden underneath whatever stain was on it originally. You brought it back to life. Great job!

  7. Yes, you did ALOT of work on that dresser. I’m sure your son loves it! My mom stripped the top of a newer coffee table for a friend once. I told her not to do it- it was more of a laquer over cheap wood. Well, she tried any way and it was a total disaster. She later agreed she should have listened to her daughter, so there is that. 🙂

  8. kddomingue says:

    Nope, you are definitely NOT the only DIYer to have a project take a hard left turn into “what the h***!” territory. Been in that neck of the woods more times than I care to think about! As to the ashiness of the wood, it look like the wood is very dry and absorbing more in some areas than others. If I had to guess, I would say that perhaps it needed a pretreatment before the tung oil to level out the moisture content of the wood?

  9. Don’t paint this beautiful, lovely grained piece! After it cures, I agree with some of the other posts and reapply the same product you previously used on top. And I wouldn’t mix products, unless necessary. Also just FYI for future items that are heavily glossed w/poly, keep a heat gun handing when stripping especially hard to reach areas…it works like a charm & inexpensive @ Harbor Freight. Just move it along slowly to bubble poly & gently scrape while soft to remove gunking poly. Then sand as needed. (Heat gun tip was shared by another DIY diva!) I enjoy your blog!!!

  10. Sherry Stuifbergen says:

    I have refinished alot of furniture. I have never used tung oil as a “finisher.” Here’s what I would do. I would sand off the top of the drawer and the drawers to get rid of the tung oil finish… apply a nice transparent oil stain that does not cover the wood grain…(like you did on the drawer fronts.) After that dries (approx. 24 hrs.) I would put a coat of polyurethane on the top, matte or satin. Let dry and reapply. Give it 2 coats. This will protect the top from any water glass, etc. left on top to ruin finish. Just resand the top and use your oil stain. It wil “enhance” the wood grain and alleiviate the dry look. I like to use satin polyurethane for durability. Do this and I KNOW you will be happy with this project.

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