Refinishing furniture

Finally finished Mariah's dresser and am so excited about how it turned out. 

This is what it looked like before we got started. My mom refinished this dresser when she was pregnant with my sister, it was then handed down to me, and will now be handed down to Mariah. I love the history that goes a long with this dresser. I'm hoping that we will be able to hand it down once more. 

This was the top of the dresser. It looks pretty nasty,  but obviously I had it through my entire childhood which essentially means I did everything in my power to destroy it.

That even included practicing my penmanship at 4 or 5 I'm not sure how old, but I clearly did not know how to spell my name yet.

My childhood friend also practiced on this dresser. It was a little sad destroying that history, but it had to go.

Jack started the process by sanding the dresser down. I was a little sad that I couldn't help more, but we didn't have any masks which meant there was dust going everywhere.

When he was done sanding it looked like this. Jack started with 80 grit sand paper to take off the previous finish and finished it by using a 220 grit to smooth it out. However, he suggests using a belt sander for this process as it didn't come out as smooth and consistent as he wanted (I think it looks perfect even if it is a little rough, but what do I know)

We used a mahogany stain to get it this dark color (we just purchased the cheapest brand and it came out great). To give it the glossy finish we used a polyurethane super gloss finish again just purchasing the cheapest brand which worked fine.

Hooray! we are finished and it looks amazing!

These are the knobs I chose at Ace Hardware that I fell head over heels in love with. They were kind of expensive at $2.99 a piece so altogether they cost us $24. 

This is the gorgeous antique lamp we bought her at a garage sale for $10. I wish it was pink to match her room better, but the lamp was so pretty I had to buy it.

It was so exciting to bwgin putting her clothes away and Bootsie kept close watch.

Now that it's getting closer and closer to the due date everything is becoming so real. Feeling her kick around and move everyday is getting me so excited to meet her, only 15 more weeks!