I’m so excited to share this Bow Front Dresser Rescue with you. This dresser came to me through a friend of a friend, literally on its way to the dump. Honestly, when I first saw it that was my thought too.
Here it is on the day I brought it home to my studio. The sides looked like they had been used for writing practice, a dog had chewed away large portions of the trim and all of the hardware was missing.
I will begin by washing the dresser with TSP and lightly sanding. The wood filler, Bondo, will do an excellent job to fill and build up any missing trim. There are several advantages to this product. The best is it won’t dry out on the shelf, and when the two parts are mixed together it dries quickly.
Bondo also sands and shapes easily so it is a good product to repair missing veneer on furniture. I used Bondo to repair the damage and missing trim at the base of the dresser. Before painting the finish I applied two coats of BIN primer to prevent any bleed through from the original mahogany finish.
It took me a while to decide how to finish this piece. I could see something classy and not too busy so that the details of the dresser wouldn’t be lost. I finally settled on a blended paint technique using 3 colors of Dixie Belle paints. You can see a excellent video of this technique here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX0_8PW83if5Oqp9RmN94Fib-QglQnTRR Thank you Brandy for sharing your creativity with us!
Supplies Used:
Sand paper
TSP
Orbital sander
BIN Primer
Dixie Belle Paint Fluff, Drop Cloth, Burlap
General Finishes High Performance Satin
Hardware sourced online
Howard Feed-N-Wax
The last thing I do to all unfinished wood in the drawers is to apply Howard Feed-N-Wax, to condition the drawer boxes. This helps to moisturize, preserve and freshen up the drawers.
Here is the final picture of the Bow Front Dresser Rescue. This project was worth the time and effort to save a quality piece of furniture that can be used for many years to come.