A New Lease on Life

The Bag Lady hosted Thanksgiving dinner last month for some of the Rancher's family, and during the course of the day, her sister-in-law mentioned an old dresser that she wanted to re-finish, if only she had the time. Naturally, the Bag Lady volunteered to do it because she loves that sort of thing. It took her a couple of weeks, partly due to the fact that she had a few other things on her plate, but it is now completed.

 She forgot to take an actual "before" picture, so the first pictures were taken when she had already started to take the old finish off.

She had not started on the top of the dresser when this picture was taken - someone else did that - but she had started on the spindle on the left...

 The dresser had an odd paint-like finish on it. It had originally come from an old hotel in the small town near where the Bag Lady lives. Her in-laws acquired it in 1949, and her mother-in-law told her it had not been changed since (except for some stickers put on by the teenaged sister-in-law!)

The partially-stripped side of the dresser....

 The Bag Lady was delighted to find this beautiful wood beneath the finish....

Here she has started the staining process.....

 She had quite a time getting all the old finish off the carving at the top of the mirror (thank heavens for old dental picks!) but thinks it turned out quite nicely.

  And here is the end product. The Bag Lady is quite pleased with the way it looks now, and only hopes her sister-in-law likes it, too!

Do you think she will?