How would you repair and refinish a dresser that was ruined by nail polish remover?
Question:I put some acetone fingernail polish remover in a small plastic cup, in which the polish remover ate through the cup and leaked onto the dresser. The spot is about the size of a hand towel smack dab in the middle of our dresser. What do I do to repair this, I am desperate to have this done before my husband gets back in 2 months. The furniture restoration people said it would cost $450 to repair it, I can buy a new dresser with that. HELP!!
Answers:
They are ripping you off. (I know, I refinish furniture for a living.)
Strip the top of your dresser using Acetone and 000 steel wool. (And be careful not to drip or splash it on other parts of the dresser.) It should strip easily; go over it twice if need be.
Acetone has an odor to it, so do this in a well ventilated area.
Then, wash the top with water, let it dry (overnight) then stain it to match and cover with a polyurethane spray. (Always follow the directions.)
Sand down the top and refinish it with a matching color. I have done this too. lol make sure its all dried out before you start sanding it down. You can probably get it done in a few hours. Good luck
Do it yourself. You only need to do the top. Go to a good home improvement store and get info on the various products. Since it's only the top, could be buying a sander (surely less than $450) and sanding off the finish might be safer than using chemcial strippers that might ooze down the sides. Then you can refinish the top. Chances are you'll never match the rest, you can get close though. When husband comments, fess up and say you made a mistake and tried your best to repair it.
First of all, it depends on what the dresser is made out of. If it is pure wood, sanding is no problem and then you can paint or stain it with a wood stain.
If it's veneered wood, you can't sand it down to fix it. You either have to strip the veneer pieces and replace them or make a seperate top out of wood to sit on top.
If it's that wood-look paper covered stuff, sanding won't work either. Spray paint might be your only choice here or make a new top to sit over the other one, out of wood and glue it down.
Well, at least you have plenty of time to refinish it! If the restoration people said it would cost $450, then it must be refinishable wood and not formica-topped or a veneer, which is good for you. (Be absolutely sure that it isn't a veneer or you will sand down to junk wood) You will have to sand the whole top surface first, which will be difficult and tedious to do by hand. Can you borrow a random orbital sander from someone? If you have to buy one it will cost you at least $65+. Start with a coarse grade of sanding disk -60 or 80 grit, then when the surface is clear of the old finish, change to a finer grit and keep sanding and changing grits to at least 220 grit. Make sure the surface is dust-free when you are done sanding. You will have a nice, bare, clean top to start staining. Try your stain choice on a piece of scrap wood and check to see how close you are to your dresser. Follow the instructions for the stain (Minwax has always worked great for me and they have a number of colors) Let it dry. Follow with at least 3 coats of polyurethane. I like a wipe-on poly (they have satin, semi-gloss and gloss finishes) as opposed to the brush-on types. No runs, no drips. It will take a number of coats - sanding with a super-fine grit by hand in between coats -to build up to a nice finish. I just refinished the top to my cherry-topped night stand because of a water ring and it came out beautiful.This is not too hard a job and as long as you can get hold of a sander - and someone to help you haul the dresser out to the garage! -it should come out really nice. Best of luck.
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