Sanded and Bleached Antique Dresser

2 Materials
$30
1 Day
Easy

I did it again! I bleached another piece of furniture and I love the way it came out. You might have seen the first piece I did here, and I liked the way it turned out I decided to do it again. This time on a dresser!

I found this dresser on Facebook MarketPlace for $20! The woman who sold it to me said it was her Grandfather's and it's been in his house for as long as she can remember. For $20 it was a great price and in great shape!

There are two ways you can go about refinishing a piece like this to get the old color off, you can strip it with paint stripper or you can sand it.


I choose to sand it...and trust me it takes time and a little elbow grease. But it's so worth it.


As you can see from the picture it's a huge difference in color once it's sanded. At this point I didn't know if I was going to need to bleach it or not. I was loving the raw wood.

Once the piece was sanded I liked the color but there was still a hint of orange left in the piece. So I bleached it.


I used regular household bleach and poured some on a rag. Make sure you wear gloves! Once I had it on the rag, I simply wiped the whole piece down.


I did this about 4 times waiting 30 minutes in between. The picture is after bleaching it.

To seal the piece I like to use a matte polycrylic sealer.


I put the original hardware back on, and it looks great! It's the perfect piece for our cottage on the lake!


Have you tried bleaching furniture yet?


Don't forget to follow me on Instagram, where I do these types of projects in real time!

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Tara Boettger
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  • Sherry Clark Sherry Clark on Sep 17, 2021

    Absolutely beautiful! Love that natural wood look!

  • Susan Susan on Sep 15, 2022

    Great job.

    What type of wood is the dresser?

  • Helen Helen on Sep 13, 2023

    How do you stop the bleaching action? Is rinsing with plain water enough?


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