Handymanhood

Yeah, it's the other kind of hardware today.

We picked up a low-boy style dresser some months back off Freecycle for Wen the Eternally Surprised, and have been intending ever since to refinish it.  Nice solid-wood dresser, three drawers high by two across, about six feet long by maybe three and a half high, but with ugly drawer Yesterday, we finally got space cleared in the garage to work on it, and cymrullewes moved it into the garage from the lower deck (where it's been sitting wrapped in plastic).

So today, I went down, checked for paint ... oh good, as I remembered, we have an unopened can of sandable grey all-surface primer and a likewise-unopened can of aqua blue paint.  Thus reassured, I started sanding.

Then I switched to a coarser disc on the orbital sander.

Then I went and got the belt sander.

Then I switched from 120-grit to 80-grit on the orbital sander.  Holy crap, not only is the paint on it hideous in the first place (flat black, unevenly applied), it's horrendous stuff to remove.  I had to go to the 80-grit belt to take the damned stuff off without it balling up and burning.  And I'll tell you, that big DeWalt sander with an 80-grit belt on that grabby paint is a real handful to control.  With my new knees far from up to par yet, it actually pulled me off balance several times.

So anyway, I managed to get the top and one end sanded down to bare wood.  (That's more than half the work, the frint being just rails and the back being unpainted.)  And you know, it's some pretty nice wood.  Looks like solid oak construction.  I have been informed the design plan is to paint the top and a band around the base sand-color, the balance aqua blue, to suggest looking down into tropical ocean and seeing the sand on the bottom.  But I can't help thinking it's almost a shame to paint that oak.

What I'll probably end up doing, at least on the top, is apply a base of sand-colored paint, sprinkle clean sand fairly generously into the fresh paint, let it dry, then brush off the sand that doesn't stick in the paint.  After that, I figure we can apply some applique scallop shells etc and half a dozen or so brushed coats of clear polyurethane until the surface is smooth.