Happy Tuesday, Friends! I dragged myself to the gym this morning so I am a little slow moving… But, I did get around to repairing a few dozen scratches in an old dresser. And it took only seconds!
This dresser is over 50 years old and has seen several different houses and about 3 different states. Thus, the dresser was really showing its age! I decided to try a quick remedy for all of the scratches using some Minwax stain I had on hand. You can see how the top of the dresser was severely scratched and looks like there was also some water damage at some point. (Coasters, people!)
Even the front of the dresser had scuffs and scratches. Just normal wear and tear from years of use/abuse.
Using some rubber gloves and an old t-shirt, I dipped the cloth into the stain (more details later) and rubbed it on the top of the dresser, rubbing it heavily into the scratches. Working in small sections is best so the stain doesn’t dry. Think “wax on-wax off” like the Karate Kid. Most of the scratches were covered instantly!
I pulled out the drawers and repeated the process on the front and sides of the dresser then I did the same for the drawers. Once dry, I buffed each of the pieces with a microfiber cloth to remove any residual stain and wallah! It looks practically new again! Note: this hardware is not original to the dresser. Over the years my sister and I managed to break several of the pulls so our Mother replaced them with these. She was the one that taught me to replace broken or ugly hardware in order to rescue a piece of furniture.
I did the same process on the twin beds, covering scratches and places where the stain had rubbed off. They look almost like new too! I think the stain on the furniture faded a little over the years, so the new stain darkened it up a little. (I may have used my flash in the photo on the left, but you can see how the stain filled in the scratches.)
Disclaimer, the stain did not completely cover all of the boo-boos on the furniture and some of the spots where I used the stain came out a bit darker than the original wood. But, after all, isn’t that the beauty of old things? A little bit of imperfections equals a lot of charm? (That’s my story and I”m sticking to it.)
The stain I used is called Jacobean 2750 by Minwax. It is a penetrating stain wood finish and “enhances the beauty of natural wood.” It’s sort of a dark oak color and also matches the color of our hardwood floors thus I’m able to use this to hide scratches on the wood floors and banisters. I’ve had this can forever so I don’t know if this exact color is still available but obviously a little stain goes a long way. And, yes, this can of stain has been around the block a time or two, but still works great!
The dresser top looks much better now, right? See the before and after…
Now that I’ve revived this old furniture it’s time to move onto decorating and more painting, of course!
Thanks so much for stopping by and supporting my little blog. Questions are comments are welcome! I hope you have a very lovely day. Lacey for one, is enjoying this gorgeous weather! xoxo Dell & Lacey
