Now, I like the color orange on a variety of things. For example, orange leaves in the fall = very pretty.  Then there is an orange you can eat.  You can’t create a rainbow without using the color orange. Pumpkins are generally orange. So you see, I have nothing against the color orange.

Except when it comes to furniture.  Furniture with orange or orangish finishes just aren’t my thing.  I feel compelled to help out a piece of furniture that finds itself in this rather unflattering garish color. 

Such is the case with this latest project the Antique Pine Dresser.  This perfectly good pine Victorian era dresser with the most gorgeous ORIGINAL glass knobs was stained a color that was supposed to be brown but really looked more like the color of a jack-o’lantern.

The good news is that most people passed up this piece because they did not see its potential.  Excellent.  

In the photo above, you can see the dresser in its original color.  Although it didn’t look appealing, I could see it had a ton of potential.  My first thought is that this would be gorgeous refinished in raw wood.  I put it on a furniture moving cart to make it easy to move around while I worked on it- so the wheels you see in the photograph under the dresser are from the cart.  

Photo: Sky Lark House

The glass knobs are a generous size and are in great condition.  When I arrived home with this piece of furniture, the first thing I did was remove the knobs and clean them.

Given the straight lines in the drawer fronts, I suspect this was made in the late 1890s to early 1900s. 

Photo: Sky Lark House

The top was in good condition.  No major scrapes or gouges.  Clearly some sanding would be needed but nothing major that required the use of Bondo or wood filler. 

Can you see the beautiful wood grain?

Photo: Sky Lark House

Photo: Sky Lark House

The drawers all functioned, although one of the interior rails needs to be repaired. 

All in all, for a piece of furniture of this age, it was in pretty good condition.  It’s just that I had to fix that darn orange color.

So, I broke out the Citiristrip and got to work.  I brushed it on and let it sit covered with Saran Wrap for about 4 hours.   I then scraped off the old finish and rubbed down the entire piece using steel wool and denatured alcohol.

Here is a short video I made showing this process

Much to my joy, this process revealed some beautiful wood underneath.

Photo: Sky Lark House

Photo: Sky Lark House

Although this piece is still “in process” – I wanted to share a video with you showing how it ended up after being stripped and partially sanded.

You can really see a big difference between the bottom drawer which was stripped and sanded vs. the two top drawers which were only stripped. 

I’m so excited to keep working on this beautiful piece of furniture.  The only problem is – I ran out of sandpaper.  So progress came to an abrupt stop.  Don’t worry, I will be back at in the next few days and will post more videos.

Do you have any pieces of furniture you want to give a raw wood finish? What is holding you back?  Please share your thoughts with me.