Lace From Rust: Childhood dresser

This is my childhood dresser which was handed down to me from my mother who also used it as a child.

I'm pretty sure this dresser was painted just about once a year when I was growing up, seeing just about every color and never was sanded down, only having paint piled on.

This paint job shows how far along I have come from four years ago. This was the last paint job I did on it when I first moved to North Carolina and had just started wanting to refurbishing furniture.

I felt it now needed one bad makeover and with all the paint already thrown on it the drawers bearly shut. I knew what needed to be done and it would be a lot of work. With this last week being in the 60's it was the only time I had before spring to get down and dirty. And my itching hands needed to complete a big project.

It was time to see the bare wood that was dying to see light again.

I learned on my last project even though I wish to use all organic products when it comes to stripping paint you have to use the nasty stuff to get the job done. And tuff strip does an awesome job of it. It had at least two generations of paint to strip away.

First I had to remove the knobs

Then I poured the paint stripper on and used a paint brush to spread it around and after a couple minutes I scrapped it off,

And scrapped.....

With each layer I felt like I was time traveling remembering each phase of life and moments that my dresser saw as I grew up in front of it.

Finally I got to my moms childhood layers and giggled as I saw some of the colors she had growing up learning more about her. Crazy what color can tell you about people.

Then I finally began to see the wood stain! Time for the sanding.