Furniture makeovers are always exciting since you never really know what the final product will look like until the process is over. One YouTuber called Jina Lee created a fun, fast-paced tutorial showing viewers how she took an old hutch and dresser and made it fresh and modern. The video doesn’t have a voiceover, but she did a great job of explaining everything she did with text overlayed on top of the video and music.
Watch this amazing furniture transformation right here on YouTube:
The video begins by showing you what she’s working with: a tall hutch with tons of cubbies as well as a classic dresser with a whopping total of 10 drawers, which is quite a lot, to be honest. She begins by showing herself using an electric sander to sand off the old finish and that she used several different sandpaper grits, including 120, 180, and 220.
After everything is sanded to a nice, smooth finish, she used some small dowels and wood glue to fill in any dents or holes that were left over. She gently tapped the dowel into the hole, then sawed down any of the dowels that were still sticking out so that the drawer fronts were nice and even. After that, she sanded them down again just to be sure that everything is nice and smooth.
The creator said that she applied a “heavy paint wash” and misted water onto the piece of furniture as she went. I assume that the mixture of water with the “paint wash” will give the furniture a more worn, dappled look. She also used something called Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty, which looks like a wood filler product.
She explained that she used this product to help fill in deep wood grain sections to make it look more uniform. The product comes as a powder, and you mix it with water before applying it to the furniture. Using a brush, she applied it going against the grain first and then sanded off the excess with 220-grit sandpaper and sander. The result is quite beautiful as the filler lets you see the grain more clearly.
After everything is sanded smoothly, she primed the piece so it would be ready for the coat of paint. She then took some painter’s tape and taped off a small section of the top portion of the dresser so that only the bottom section was painted.
She said that you can paint the base color along the edge of the tape, and it won’t bleed through. After the painting was done, she gently sanded the edges where the tape and wood met to remove any raised edges, so everything looked seamless.
Her top coat consisted of between three and four coats of paint. An interesting thing she did was use a peel-and-stick velvet strip to protect areas where the drawers would meet the painted surface, similar to cabinet bumpers you use in kitchens.
This is a brilliant idea that I never would have thought of doing myself! Once this is complete, the video pans out so you can see the finished product and, wow, is it cool! The top hutch area remained “bare” but since it was sanded down it looked light and airy.
The bottom half of the dresser was painted in a deep gray hue, and the top section has a perfect line so you can see the contrast. I really love this project and how it turned out!
Viewer Artemis Luv appreciated that she told everyone what sandpaper she used and said, “Thank you for telling us the grit of sandpaper n everything you used turned out beautifully.”
YouTube viewer Queen D said, “This was a beautiful piece to start with, what you created is absolutely stunning, you did a fantastic job.”
I completely agree, this unique piece of vintage furniture looks absolutely stunning with its new two-toned color scheme. The top section is left lighter along with the top two drawers, which creates a bold and dramatic visual aesthetic.
