Looking for ideas to refinish this bird's eye maple dresser, I would like to keep at least the front of the drawers natural wood.
I'm refinishing a 'bird's eye' maple dresser, need help with how to re
by
Mon15442229
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I bought this dresser many years ago, was told bird's eye maple, only see that by definition in few areas on the front drawers. It had been stripped most of the way when I got it and looks like had previously been painted an off white. I would like to keep at least the front drawers natural finish, the top will depend on removing the dark rings it came with so don't know what they are from. Ideas on refinishing and finding the key hole plates.
top of dresser with dark rings (don't know what it is from, I got it this way)
looking for key hole plates
I think it might help if you could post a picture? Especially for the coloring and key hole plates. To still see the wood on the drawers, you could stain them or even try a gel stain. If you can't remove the dark rings, you may have to look at staining it very dark in contrast to the drawers or painting it. Milk paint, mineral fusion paint and chalk paint are all nice to use because they don't require much prep of the furniture piece.
For the front I would use a light oil once you get it all sanded down. It will be natural then
I think this might help you out!
https://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/skills-and-know-how/painting/how-to-refinish-wood-furniture
I would lightly sand and stain the entire piece. Cabot and Zahr make good stains. General Finishes also makes a great stain and you can call them for advice.
I have used the General Finishes gel stain. I first lightly used Citristrip to remove some of the varnish and after cleaning this up, I lightly sanded the table and used the gel stain. It helped that I was going for a darker color.