White & Pink Vintage Dresser

I purchased this dresser because of the simple lines and solid wood construction

However once I got it home I found it had oil spilt in many of the drawers. I contemplated just giving it away but the solid wood build is hard to find so I undertook the challenge.

So I took the drawers apart and using new hardboard I had on hand

I cut new drawer bottoms with the table saw.

Much better ;) (Right that is LOL)

Now to address the dresser existing finish, it was a melamine type paint but had crazed in many areas and sanding will not fix that. The entire dresser exterior was stripped with paint stripper. The top shown with the stripper on it was super easy to remove.

The drawer fronts and sides were NOT easy to strip and took almost 2 hours to scrape off ;(

But I got it done, I love the wood grain peeking thru, the effort will be worth the work, right?

Then they were all power sanded to the bare wood.

The drawer front show a good before and after.

Once all sanded the top had an oiled like finish that I think is why it made the stripper work so easy.

The wood is lovely and so hard, I believe it is birch?

To get the edges where the paint was still I used sandpaper and a screw driver, whew

Many voted they thought it should be pink so I mixed a softer version of pink using Fusion Mineral Paint English Rose and picket fence. I then mixed the pink 50:50 with water for a stain.

And only the drawer fronts would be pink after testing on one.

I hand painted the picket fence in the carved edge for a bit of pop.

The edges all required tedious hand sandpapering to remove any stripper and gunk leaving most of the gold.

However the gold did not stay consistent to try and keep as part of the finish so it was painted.

Here is the first coat on the drawer fronts.

Now for the dresser body, I just could not cover that wood grain. I choose Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in farmhouse white. One coat is shown on the right.

And here is two, it is whiter but still the wood grain can be seen. To seal it,  Daddy Vans white wax was hand rubbed in.

Two coats of the light pink went on each sanded well to try and keep a stained look.

However I felt it was too strong against the soft stained white

so I power sanded all the drawer fronts down once again show on the right.

And over top I did a wash of  Fusion Mineral Paint in lamp white which has a greyer tone to take down the pink more and blend with the farmhouse white milk paint body.

Yes this works much better.

The original hardware was scrubbed and on just a few areas Fusion Mineral Paint pure gold metallic paint was brushed on with a wee detail brush. Then the hardware was put back on, all the drawer runners; both on the drawers and in the dresser were waxed for easy opening and closing and it was ready to go.

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