refinished dresser and bookshelf

A few weeks ago when my sister, brother and his wife were here, Steph and I found these two items at a garage sale for $10 each. I thought they had promise...

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This dresser must have been stained at some point b/c the previous owners had it all stripped down except for that bottom piece. The handle/puller things were falling off, not to mention ugly. The wood was kind of soft and the whole thing was filthy. They must have used this outside b/c they had nailed a metal screen (like from a window) to the bottom of the dresser so bugs (?) couldn't get in. However, the inside of the drawers were still really gross... .

There was a board on top that was loose, though you can't really see it here. You can see the putty that they used to even it out instead of just raising that one board to the level of the rest... So I sanded all of that putty out and Terry raised the board. It's still a little low in the middle, but it works. Character. We got rid of those handles, obviously.

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Here is the book shelf. I thought I would just sand it a little to open the grain. But it was so hard and old that I was going to need some more help than just my own elbow grease (my elbows are really weak. as terry will tell you, my Chinese name is Weak Ling)...

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So I borrowed Terry's uncle's electric sander thing. It took some getting used to but it did pretty well. I probably should have brought some paint stripper since there was lime green paint under this cream stuff and maybe more under that layer. But I didn't think of that until yesterday when I the stuff at Walmart. Here is the shelf after I applied real power.

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See the green? I thought this was good enough to be going on with.

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Then I used four cans of black semi-gloss spray paint on the shelf. Terry showed me how and I wore a mask for the first 3 cans (the 4th can I didn't wear one and regretted it when I spit out black stuff...). Here is what my face looked like when I took that mask off. Smudge much. But I was so proud that I was making the shelf pretty.

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Here is the shelf!!! This is where you first come in our front door. In front of the shelf is our couch.

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The view when you walk in the door.

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Okay, now for the dresser. I used the electric sander on the bottom piece that was still stained and that worked really well. Oh, and after I took off all the pullers, I used the sander there too. It was a little too rough for this soft wood, but again, character. I used Java gel stain from Unpainted Furniture, which is what I used on our armoir. Then I put two coats of polyurethane on. All we have to do now is put on the new pullers we got from Menards, on sale.

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Looky looky! Amazing huh???!!! I am so pleased w/it. I think it's too pretty to go in the guest bedroom where it will never be looked at and hardly used. I'm voting that it stays in a living room. So that's where it is now.

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This is our front living room. Amazing!

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This is my view right now, during the day.
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Okay, here is the shelf w/some stuff on it so you can actually see that there are shelves there. I have to get something pretty to put on it... Or I will just put books up since I don't like clutter.

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We put the lamp on that buffet since we had to move the kids book shelf away from the chair and put it next to the loveseat.

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Okay, now you just have to come over so you can see them in real life! I'm so pleased!