Restoring a pine dresser

dfcelt

Any budding carpenters/restoration experts out there?

I "inherited" a pine dresser unit from my parents, nice unit with about ten coats of varnish on it!
Now my kitchen is a maple shaker type (ie REALLY light colour pine, so light its bordering on white) so I decided to sand down the unit completely. It was showing signs of wear & I wanted to see its original colour to see if it would go with my kitchen. After 3 days of hell I'm finally finished the sanding. I placed a damp cloth on the surface (to see the effect clear varnish would have) and it is bringing the dresser up too dark.

Does anybody know of any technique to make the grain/timber look lighter?
Is there an alternative varnish/treatment I could use?

Any help appreciated lads, I'd like to tackle it this weekend

ScottishDanny

Try a lime wash - its like whitewash for wood. You'll find different shades of it at any DIY shop. It might not make an exact match though (test it on the inside of the dresser drawer).

kadman

ScottishDanny wrote:

Try a lime wash - its like whitewash for wood. You'll find different shades of it at any DIY shop. It might not make an exact match though (test it on the inside of the dresser drawer).

Maybe Whitewashman could advise you on it.......:D

Of course you do know the origin of using Whitewash in the treatment of timber, dont you....

No doubt WWm and WW..boy will be digging up the info as we speak:p

Are you sure the dresser is made from pine. If its an old one it could be made from beech or sycamore as well.

kadman

dfcelt

Cheers Danny, I'll try that

dfcelt

kadman wrote:

Maybe Whitewashman could advise you on it.......:D

Of course you do know the origin of using Whitewash in the treatment of timber, dont you....

No doubt WWm and WW..boy will be digging up the info as we speak:p

Are you sure the dresser is made from pine. If its an old one it could be made from beech or sycamore as well.

kadman

Not sure kadman, I could dig out an photo if any of the enthusiasts on here want to see

delly

Hey Kadman,

Would you be happy to take such thread over in your forum for future reference? Saw the title and felt it might be ok to move, but best to ask first.

kadman

dfcelt wrote:

Not sure kadman, I could dig out an photo if any of the enthusiasts on here want to see

Post it up , I,ll try to id it for you

kadman

kadman

delly wrote:

Hey Kadman,

Would you be happy to take such thread over in your forum for future reference? Saw the title and felt it might be ok to move, but best to ask first.

Well the jurys out on whether I will be hanging around here and modding the Woodcrafts forum at the moment.

So I think I might leave that to the next mod, at the moment. If I.m still modding I,ll pm you.

kadman

delly

kadman wrote:

Well the jurys out on whether I will be hanging around here and modding the Woodcrafts forum at the moment.

So I think I might leave that to the next mod, at the moment. If I.m still modding I,ll pm you.

kadman

Grand so. ty.

Viking House

Leave it unfinished and it will stay light.
We only ever finish tables, we often leave dressers unfinished.