I bought this old dresser from a friend-of-a-friend who needed to get rid of some furniture.

I paid a whopping twenty-five bucks for this piece. When I examined the details of this dresser, I realized that it was solid wood except for some plywood on the back and bottom.

Even though I was swamped with home improvement projects, I envisioned a furniture refinishing project in my near future.

After I parked this dresser in my garage, I noticed this sticker inside one of the top drawers.

I don't know if this dresser would qualify as a true antique, but it seemed pretty old. The fact that the sticker states "solid maple" and "solid cherry" was a pleasant surprise.

The dresser had some strange white spots on the top. I couldn't tell if these spots were paint, or something that had damaged the finish.

There were also some stains that had penetrated into the wood, and I wasn't sure if they could be removed.

There were a lot of scratches on the top. Since the top is solid wood, I knew that I could sand these scratches out.

If the top had been a veneer, there would be a risk of sanding through the veneer, which would get ugly. Deep scratches in veneer would be better treated by filling them with wood putty.

We set up a work table and covered it with a sheet of plastic, held down with large spring clamps.

The basic supplies we used for stripping the finish:

• Furniture stripper
• a one-quart plastic cup
• an old 2" paint brush
• a scrubbing pad
• a plastic-bristle brush.

I set up a "wash rack" by placing an old piece of white wire shelving on a pair of sawhorses.

I also set up a drying rack by laying wire shelving on another pair of sawhorses. I figured wire shelving would be best because air could circulate beneath the drawers.

Wearing a pair of chemical-resistant rubber gloves, we painted the stripper on the outside of the drawer box.

To keep the stripper from drying out, we sprayed the wood with rubbing alcohol. We used an ordinary garden sprayer that is manually pumped to pressurize.

Then we scrubbed the surfaces with a small plastic-bristle brush. We also tried using a scrubbing pad, but it was less effective than the brush.

We found that the softened finish would work its way deep into the bristles, but the scrubbing pad's surface would just get covered with gunk. We periodically cleaned out the brush with a power washer. The pad wasn't so easy to clean.

After the stripper had been allowed to work for 10 to 15 minutes, I power-washed the drawer boxes.

It's important to be very thorough when washing. Any spots of stripper that are not removed will interfere with the drying of the finish, and I won't know about it until it's too late.

To power wash the inside of the drawer boxes, I held the drawer up with one hand and blasted it with the power-washing wand held in my other hand.

This was kinda awkward, because the power-washer wand is quite long and I couldn't get my arms far enough apart.

We laid a sheet of plastic on the lawn and set the dresser on a couple of blocks of wood to keep it off the ground.

We applied stripper to the sides with a paint brush.

Then we scrubbed...

...and power-washed.

Lori and I worked together to apply stripper to the front...

...and top.

We found it was really easy to splash each other with paint stripper, which irritates the skin on contact. Be careful when working with another person... and wear eye protection!

Scrubbing The Top:

We used a floor brush to scrub the stripper. Being a larger brush, this worked faster, but it required more effort.

After power washing the entire unit, we tipped it forward to let the water drain. I also set up a large fan to blow on the dresser, which helped dry it faster.

The day after we stripped the dresser, I moved it into the sun to dry completely.

I strapped the dresser to a mover's dolly to make it easier to move.

After drying, there was some white "sludge" on the surfaces.

This patch of sludge on the face frame was the worst... but it came off with some light sanding.