He was in really rough shape. The top was BADLY warped but the body was in decent shape.
Even if the pieces couldn’t be rescued I knew I could save the solid brass handles.
I started by removing the top completely and replacing it with a couple of pieces of wood
I traced the front of the dresser under the front piece and cut it out
Then glued (Gorilla glue) and clamped it down for 2 days
After it was attached securely, I took a sander to it and rounded the edges
also making sure that the seam was not noticeable (I didn’t use any wood filler)
I then stained the top with some Minwax Dark Walnut
After I let that sit and dry for a few good days I started to sand the rest of the piece
You can kind of see the inside of the middle drawer. I had to remove the bottoms of the two large drawers because they were unsalvagable.
Here’s where it sat for about 3 weeks while I was on the hunt for the perfect knobs
I took the drawers into the shop replaced the bottoms then stained them with the same Dark Walnut
Then I painted the top, inside and bottoms of the drawers, inside of the dresser and the back with Behr’s Indiscreet Red. A little distressing, some more stain, sanding, wax, some new knobs and he’s DONE : )
He’s handsome now
(sorry for the bad picture inside : ( )