monster project, part 1: the process

I just completed a huge project, and I’m feeling darn good.

We’ve been struggling with the issue of a Wesley dresser for quite some time. First, we used Sterlite plastic containers under his crib. But since we have WAY too many clothes, we needed an upgrade. Since our space is limited, I intially wanted a tall skinny “lingerie chest” of some sort. But I had a hard time finding what I wanted to match his cherry crib furniture. I finally gave up on that idea and decided to settle for a real dresser (and move some stuff from his room into another room to make space), but again, I had problems finding something um, not particle board but not wildly expensive that again, matched the crib furniture.

Enter this post, where I asked my loyal followers what to do. And the idea was launched to buy an unfinished dresser and finish it myself.

Here my saga begins.

I found a used unfinished five-drawer pine dresser on Craigslist for $50. It was 10 years old and belonged to some teenage boys. It had stickers, knicks, pencil marks, and more, all over it. The wood was in great shape, but it was really beat up cosmetically.

With it sitting in the back of the Impreza, I went to Lowe’s and the super-helpful guys there explained to me step-by-step what to do. I went in with a piece of the crib’s drop-rail so I could compare colors and select a stain that would match. I found the perfect stuff, Min-Wax’s “Red Mahogany.” I bought all kinds of stuff to get the job done.

Shane later went out and bought me a sandpaper holder, which was AWESOME, and I got some new knobs and screws for the drawers.

So, if you're wondering the final price tag:

• $50, for used pine dresser
• $20, for pre-stain, stain, post-stain, and sandpaper
• $10 for the knobs, $5 for everything else
  
  
• Grand total: $85

The dresser (for the most part) looked like this when I brought it home:

Actually, this picture is AFTER the first drawer got one round of sanding, when it occured to me to take a "before" picture. But, it mostly shows you the sad shape of the dresser, as previously described.

So, if you're adventurous and want to try this at home, here goes:

Sanding

• Sand everything, piece by piece, with a 120-grade sandpaper. The smaller the number, the more rough it is. I did all the drawers first, then the main dresser.
  
  
• Take a sock and go over the wood with it. If the material snags in any place, keep sanding until it’s smooth. Scratches of any kind in the wood are actually accented in the staining process, so work really hard to get rid of them. There was a huge gash on the top of the main dresser. I sanded and sanded and sanded. I really felt like I got it, and was proud of myself, but it STILL came up after the stain. So I shoulda sanded more.
  
  
• Vacuum all the dust away when you’re finished sanding.
  
  
• Finally, wipe the wood with a damp cloth. Sawdust is the enemy.

Pre-staining

• Apply the pre-stain with a paintbrush. The pre-stain supposedly evens out the stain and makes it more smooth and uniform, thus it looks more professional.
  
  
• Wait about a half hour to get started. I made the mistake of um, waiting a couple days, and I had to pre-stain again. You need to do it within a couple hours for the pre-stain to actually help.

Staining

• Don’t wear clothes you care about. My uniform: old running shoes, old running pants, old t-shirt, old sweatshirt. On my hands were a pair of winter gloves with yellow kitchen cleaning gloves on top. Not pretty, but functional.
  


• Gather your tools and prepare your work space. My locale: our balcony, covered in newspapers. I had a screwdriver to open the stain cans, a dowel rod to stir the stain, and an old white shirt ripped into shreds for staining.
  


• Day 1: Apply the stain, then “wipe it off” some interval of time later. The longer the stain sits on the wood, the deeper it gets. I had five drawers, so I’d do a drawer, let it sit while I did the next drawer, then wipe the first drawer, on down the line. I used the same cloth to wipe all the drawers, but I pretty much used a new cloth to stain each one of them. The cloths get super saturated. The can of stain says to wait two hours before doing a second coat. I waited not quite that long and did it all again on that first day.
  


• Day 2: Do another coat of stain, following the same protocol as Day 1. The wood, at this point, is looking more and more like how I want it to look. You could probably skip this step if you wanted a light colored stain; remember I’m doing a red mahogany to match cherry finish, so I wanted it nice and deep. I actually brought a drawer inside and sat it next to the crib to make sure it looked how I wanted. Then, when I did the main dresser, I had a finished drawer nearby to compare at all times.
  


• Day 3: Take a finer piece of sandpaper and lightly sand again. You’ll find that as stain starts to set, the wood feels gritty. I don’t know why. And, scuffs do rise off the surface and sanding again helps to mute them. After the light sanding, apply one last coat and wipe it off, making sure to spread the stain evenly.

Post-staining

• Day 4: Apply the post-stain from a spray can of a polyurethane coating (I don’t know what “polyurethane” means). It’s best to do at least two coats, waiting 2 hours in between coats. The can says the furniture is OK to use after drying for 24 hours, but I say “no way Jose.” The drawers stank for days. When I was in Lowe’s and the guy was describing it to me, he kept using the terms “shellac” and “lacquer” and I kept thinking of Meet the Parents when Ben Stiller set that altar on fire then blamed it all on the shellac. So I was nervous and tried not to overdo it. And it still really stank.
  


• Lastly, put the knobs on, reassemble, and you’re done!
  

Words of Advice

• I brought everything in overnight. It is the middle of winter here. I didn’t want them to get condensation (or rain) on them.
  


• Shane has this big Rubbermaid thing he keeps car stuff in out on our balcony, and he let me put the bulkier and heavier main dresser on it so I could stain all the way down the sides without touching the ground. It worked out well. I used a step stool to do the top, and it was still tough. I'm just not tall enough. This is when my clothes got really really dirty.
  


• Be sure to watch for the smaller crevices. The drawers have some detailing and I can look at them now and see spots that I missed in the teeny little indentations. Oh well.
  


• I decided just to do the front wooden piece of the drawers, not the whole drawer. But, that meant I wanted to stain the backside of that front drawer piece. That was really tough. When the drawer was standing vertically on the ground, I couldn’t get upside down to look underneath that main wooden slab, and I couldn’t very well pick up the drawer and rotate it when other parts of the wood (and my hands) were wet. Usually when I tried that, the stain on my hands would transfer and I’d get smudges on the other parts of the drawer that I wanted to remain virgin. Really sloppy. I don't know the answer to that one.
  


• Also, stain drips, and it did get on parts of the drawer I didn’t want. I’d freak out and just keep going and say to myself, “I’ll deal with it later.” What I should have done, and what I discovered on the last drawer, was to wipe it immediately. The longer the stain sits, the deeper it is. So if it’s only been on a surface for a few seconds, wipe it right off! I wish I would have thought of that earlier.

So... the result?

I'm a pretty bad photographer, so you can't even really see how "cherry" it is. It matches the crib really well.

The crazy part is, I finally found a bookcase for the living room (for our movies, CDs, Wesley's books and toys, etc.), and it's unfinished. I'm thinking of buying it and doing another project out on the balcony! Am I crazy or what? (I might just varnish... not stain... but still!)

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this saga.... no, no, I'm not done.