From the alley to my home

My phone buzzes; it's a text message from my pal Erin. "There's a dresser in the alley. Says free. You want?" I pick up my phone and call her right away. Erin tells me that it seems pretty solid, good bones. I ask "is it real wood or...veneer?" She says that it's real, it has good structure, two small drawers and some large ones, and nice, wood knobs. I'm intrigued.


Even though at this moment in life I don't really have the need for yet another dresser, I can't pass up the opportunity to turn this beat around. We drove to a dark, back alley of Capitol Hill, here in Seattle, loaded up the dresser and got it home. The next day, I attacked it with my nail gun and some wood glue. The bones were good, just like Erin said, but the joints were aching. Re-securing the sides, both and the top and bottom, to the cross bars within the dresser, it was no longer shaky, but sturdy.


That was just step one. Step two involved fixing up the drawers. They were not rickety at all, but their undersides really showed the wear and splintering from years of open/close action. A little wood glue on the non-contacting surfaces is all it took to stop some of the splintering and ensure that the drawer bottoms would last another 40 years.



Step three: removing the old finish. I've stripped away the years from lots of pieces of furniture, but none have ever been as easy as this dresser. Oddly, it needed no stripping agent, just sand paper and elbow grease. It took just under an hour and a half to take away the

stain and lacquer and turn it into a blank canvas. I'm very happy with it. The wood is very soft to touch even though it's been sanded so smooth. It's ready to take on a new color and a stand-out design. PS: I only needed 100 grit sand paper and then for good measure used some 150 grit to make it a tad nicer.

I haven't yet decided on the final fate, both style and function, of the dresser. Any thoughts? I'm going to do some research today. I'm leaning towards a bright, Mexican, hacienda style...