Comments on: Amazing Waterfall Chest of Drawers Makeover

By: Gail Wilson

Gail Wilson — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 19:03:52 +0000

In reply to Tina.

Tina,

I lightly sanded the drawers on this piece. My suggestion is to use a fine grade sandpaper, and a light touch. If you get stuck, reach out to me and I’ll try to help.

gail

By: Tina

Tina — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 18:52:27 +0000

This turned out great! I have a similar piece that is a cedar chest with the waterfall & veneer. I want to refinish similar to this by sanding the main parts & paintwash or stain and paint the feet & trim in black. I have never sanded the waterfall, cedar or veneer before, any tips? Also wondering what cedar looks like sanded? Will it be a color I can paintwash? Thank you

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 21:52:21 +0000

Hi Gail,
The tortoise shell is called Bakelite, or polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride … 😉. It is quite an historic phenomenon.
Great work! I love waterfall furniture and Bakelite 😎

By: Gail Wilson

Gail Wilson — Wed, 13 May 2020 14:06:20 +0000

In reply to therese marie ercolani.

Since I used the Citristrip first, I didn’t have to sand very much. It’s sort of an inlay, so you would have to sand heavy to damage it.

So, I recommend using Citristrip first!

gail

By: therese marie ercolani

therese marie ercolani — Tue, 12 May 2020 21:24:49 +0000

Gail – I have 2 waterfall dressers that I want to repurpose. How did you save the detail strip on the front? I have detail on the front and I am afraid if I sand it down lightly it will remove the detail? Any suggestions??

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 19:13:13 +0000

Stumbled upon your entry here as I am looking up ways to refinish my own waterfall set. Just picked up two new pieces, and they are in varying degrees of wear. This was a great source of info for refinishing it and not just slapping some paint on there! Thank you!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 06:11:21 +0000

What a wonderful save. I’m amazed that you got al of the “artwork” off. Painting the sides and staining the front really highlight the beautiful waterfall patten of the wood.

By: gail@myrepurposedlife.com

gail@myrepurposedlife.com — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 12:57:40 +0000

In reply to Cathy.

I should have done a second coat of stripper, or at least left the first coat on longer. It left too much goo behind. I think it would mean less sanding.

The wood handles were very strange wood. It almost seemed like they wouldn’t even “take” the stain.

They all have the tortoise shell plastic pieces, I’m not a fan.

I only put one coat of stain on everything. I will probably do two coats of poly (probably semi-gloss)

Stripping products have changed a lot over the years. Nothing works like it did 40 years ago. 🙁

good luck Cathy and have fun! Keep me posted!

gail

By: Cathy

Cathy — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 04:10:59 +0000

I have a waterfall dresser that is almost the twin of yours. On mine, the top drawer looks like burled wood and the bottom 3 are V-d like yours. When you stripped the drawers you mentioned you should have done a second coat of the stripper. Would this have meant less sanding? My hands and arms don’t like sanding any more and without the control I would be concerned that I would go through the veneer.
I like the hardware on your top drawer. It’s too bad that they (whoever “they” are) didn’t put them all the way down the front. If you hadn’t painted the wooden handles would you have stained them the same colour as the drawers? The hardware on my dresser is the most bizarre looking hardware I have ever seen. They’re round (3″ across), made of a kind of orangy plastic, tortoiseshell-y looking material and in the centre is a brushed brass-ish circle (2″ across) with concentric circle grooves. Really not that fond of them other than the fact they are odd. With my luck I’d throw them away and find out later they were worth a lot of money. Need to do some research first. I bought this off Kijiji at a great price. The lady said it was her great grandmother’s. No one took a sharpie to mine but the sides are covered in stickers and the spongy bits from the backs of hooks. Not pretty!
How many coats of stain did you put on? And when you poly how many coats will you do? This will be first stripping project in over 40 years so I’m a little rusty.
Thanks as always for a great post! I am in constant amazement of your imagination for looking at a piece of furniture and seeing what it could look like.
Cathy

By: Cynthia Chilson Finger

Cynthia Chilson Finger — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 05:45:57 +0000

Absolutely I would have dragged that piece home and saved it from the dumpster. You did a great job transforming it, Gail, and someone will be lucky to have a well made, solid piece of furniture in their home. Now lets just hope it doesn’t have sharpies in it! 😀 Take care, Cynthia