P-Man's Dresser Makeover

I have wanted to re-do Porter's dresser for as long as I can remember..... it is actually my baby dresser. It has followed me from house to house, but desperate need of a re-do.  Lots 'o dings and scratches but still good bones. When I started reading obsessing over DIY blogs, I decided to take to plunge and try it out.

I scoured my favorite blogs and after reading Centsational Girl's post on a dresser she did for her nephew's I was sold.  She used a colored stain (something I didn't even know existed), and re did the hardware and it was a whole new piece.  Stain doesn't provide the color saturation of paint obviously, but we thought it would be a neat way to incorporate color into his room and it still blend with the existing furniture.  It honestly was a shot in the dark, I had zero clue what to expect, but I want to get better at refinishing and re-purposing stuff and figured this was a good place to start.

I went to Home Depot, got all the supplies, recruited my hubby and started it up. I have a really hard time with vision.  We already have a lot of colors going on in his room.  It is, of course, Pirate themed (I have been obsessed since I was pregnant with him) and his bedding had all different colors.  We added an Ikea piece that is white, bright blue and green, so I was hesitant to add another color.  So, after seeing a sample at Home Depot I decided on Minwax, Island Blue.  With it being not "paint" saturated with color, I thought it would be a nice, bright, all boy color that would go with what we already had. There was some nail biting through that decision process, not gonna lie. But in the end, I am hoping it comes together as a perfect, nautical, island-y, friendly Pirate place for my favorite lil Pirate Porter.

 This project was A LOT harder than I anticipated.  Not because it actually is hard, just lack of experience with such things. We had never really sanded anything and there was a lot of varnish and stain to get through.  The sanding alone probably took 6 hours over the course of the weekend. Neil did 90% of this.  I seriously couldn't have done it without his patience and help.   We learned a lot though and I don't anticipate the next project taking this amount of time.  We expected there to be a learning curve with this project.

Here it is Before:

 Here it is after sanding:

 In the middle of staining:

The Front After Staining:

 The Stain Up Close:

We still have to put a coat of polyurethane on it and get new hardware.  I think I want to try and find handles that look like ropes for a nautical feel to go along with the Pirate theme.  I think it is a good addition to P-man's room. Can't wait to post the final pictures!