This was a project that I took on back in 2002. Penny and I found this old, solid poplar chest-of-drawers at Page’s Thieves Market in Mt. Pleasant for $50. We had in mind to refinish it and put it in our foyer. This particular project only took a couple of weeks, most of which was stripping multiple coats of shellac, varnish, stain and at least two different paint colors from the wood.
Addendum… March 5, 2011 — Well, the chest-of-drawers is still here! We have THREE kids now, so it is rapidly becoming moving toward looking more like an antique than it used to. Logan, our 3-year old boy loves to throw things over the rail right above it, so it’s got a few character dings now. Still love it though…