The dresser that made me mad once upon a time

After finishing my chair and cabinet projects, I started thinking---what to do now??? Well, we don't have room for anything else in our apartment currently, so I started to look around here, nothing came to mind...bummer!  But then, as I went to get a small appliance out of the dresser that we have in the kitchen (old old dresser with a few coats of paint on it), the drawer would NOT open.  No amount of force would open this drawer.  It was then when the lightbulb turned on---ah ha!  I should sand the sides of the drawers and then they will open easier, right?, and of course that led to a much larger project, because I started to think (which sometimes is a good thing, sometimes not so good...)

We have had this dresser for a few years now, and it was painted a lovely grayish blue color.  Not sure where we got it, I think it came along with Eric and his things.  Well, everytime we went to get something out of a drawer, 9 times out of 10 the drawer would get stuck.  Therefore, I would shout obscenities and kick the thing, hoping the drawer would magically open--it did not.  Here is the dresser before (mind you--not ugly, just annoying when the drawers don't open):

First things first, remove the drawers from the dresser (duh!), then remove all of the nobs, clean the inside of the drawers if they're nasty, like mine that had batter acid all over--hmmm.  Get out your handy dandy electric sander with extra coarse sand paper (40?) and go to town!  I started out with "fine" grit and that was a big no no....it did not work well for all of the paint.  I went through about 7 sander disc things throughout this whole process (pack of 5 is like $3.50 or so).  P.S. do not think it is okay to try and stop the sander with your hand, it hurts very badly ;-)  After sanding all of the drawer faces and sides (did not sand the inside, but instead just did a simple paint job over the top of the existing paint), I started sanding the rest of the dresser.  Be sure to get all of the paint off if you plan on STAINING rather than repainting.  After sanding, be sure to get ALL of the dust and dirt off of the surfaces before staining---this is VERY important!

After getting ALL of the paint off (yes I said all, however I did not sand the inside of the dresser shell (see where gray paint still exists) and the insides of the legs are not sanded, but its an accent color, ok?? ;-) ).  Anyways, after sanding and cleaning the wood, it is time to start staining!  This dresser only used a tiny can of stain, the smallest can you can get.  You can either use a brush to stain or you can use a terry cloth.  I used a cloth.  Make sure you have gloves on because stain does not come off your hands easily.  Dip your cloth into the stain and the take the cloth and apply to the surface in even lines, not letting the stain soak in to long.  Go back and forth the length of the dresser. Do one coat, and then take a dry cloth and go back over where you just stained.  Let that sit for 15 minutes or so, then apply another coat, wipe a dry cloth on it, and let it sit.  Repeat until you get your desired darkness.  Do this to all sides of the dresser, and all drawers.  Be sure to do the same number of coats on each part, otherwise the color will be off.  After staining and obtaining the desired color, let it dry for a few hours (I am no expert but I let mine sit for about 2 hours or so).  Apply a clear polyurathane to the whole thing.  They have spray cans with this but I used just regular cans and applied it with a cloth.  I applied it thick. Once it dries completely, put the knobs back on the drawers (I am reusing them since they are fairly new-ish, but you can buy new ones).  Put the drawers in the dresser and viola! You're done! :-).