Bought a second-hand dresser - do I stain/paint/wax/varnish it?

[TheOtherBear]

I've finally got a large dresser for my kitchen-diner that I've been wanting for years. Kept an eye on things like FB Marketplace and charity furniture shops to find one I like - always looking for things like 'big brown furniture', basically.

The one I've got is lovely and in good condition, but it's pine and therefore more orangey than I'd like.

Most people around me are saying to paint it, but I'm not sure about that. In an ideal world it would be darker wood coloured (we have a lot of mahogany in our house - doors, banisters, picture rails).

I'm reasonably au fait with sanding and painting things, so surely it wouldn't be that different a process here? Give it a light sand and then some wax / varnish, maybe? Any advice?

Nothing worse than orangey pine! I bought an old dresser which I sanded and painted in a chalk finish off-white. I love it!! The but is that home is very country cottage style and it works. If something darker would work better, you could stain it and wax over it or what about painting it a dark, traditional colour like a reddy brown?

Head over to YouTube and watch some thrift flip videos.
For painting you just need a light scuff sand and then you paint over. But if you want to stain or varnish, sounds like you want to stain it darker and then apply a clear varnish to seal, you need to sand off all the old finish, which is more work.

I like the videos from Transcend Furniture Gallery.

I picked up a pine dresser on ebay - untreated pine, so no shine was good quality, tight grain. I left it - the rest of the kitchen is painted, it just works, I have no temptation to paint it at all. It brings earthiness to the kitchen. I'd decide based on the other furniture in the room - as long as it's good quality and it works with the other pieces it'll be fine.

I hate seeing original wood furniture being painted, especially dark Matt colours. But it’s your dresser…

Appreciate those replies, thanks all.

Interesting about needing to sand more off if varnishing/staining/waxing than if I was painting. There's definitely some kind of varnish on it that I would need to get off then, in that case.

I've only ever hand-sanded things, but maybe it would be worth buying something electric to help the process?

I'm not in a rush to do this at all, so would be happy to work at the sanding over a weekend, for example, and then find another weekend to put the new stuff on.

@Sajacas - that video is really helpful, thank you!

@BritHoward - yeah, that's fair. The colour scheme of the room was dark blue and orange (with white walls), so suddenly the extra orange of the pine feels overwhelming. But I could do something simple like change the tablecloth (currently orange and white patterned) to the blue side of things instead, and then it might balance it all out. It's got dark blue curtains, a wall hanging with blue and orange in it (and a bit of pink), dark wood floor, a mat under the table that is blue and rust colour, and an orange-painted wood shelf.

Maybe if I add more blue then the colour scheme will still work.

I'm really not committed to wood - I don't see painting wood as a travesty - but deciding to paint pine because it feels unfashionable maybe is. The things that make your home feel lived it, interesting, unique - are the little things you've picked up and not done what everyone else does - that's quite boring and predictable imo.

My banisters were originally pitch pine, stained dark - a very common Victorian trick to make cheap wood look like teak or mahogany - I removed the colour, it didn't look real enough - I like the raw wood underneath and because it's pitched pine (close grain) - it very quickly developed a lovely feel underhand. I kept it.

By the way if you are buying a sander - get one that can take sanding mesh and will fit onto your hoover. It gives you a close to dust free sanding experience - safer and more comfortable all round.