French Provincial wood bleach dresser makeover

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Today is a really long post about how I bleached my dresser to give it a much-needed update. There are many tutorials out there already about how to do this and I just wanted to add my 2 cents to it to tell you what worked for me and what I maybe did differently than others.

The Drexel French Provincial dresser that I have had in our upstairs hallway for many many years and have given different makeovers, has annoyed me for a long time. Right after I painted it silver when I bought it, the issues started. The silver paint clearly wasn’t meant for furniture and the silver flaked off soon after painting. After that, I added dark gray chalk paint to the dresser but it didn’t withstand the abuse my kids subjected it too.

I didn’t want to buy anything new and work with what I had. The dresser fits the hallway perfectly. So now being mostly stuck at home, I thought the time was finally there to tackle this major project. When I originally painted the dresser, I noticed the wood under it and always wondered what it would look like in a raw state. Recently I also noticed that I was more and more drawn to bleached wooden furniture. The chairs in our living room have bleached legs and I love the combo of the more rustic look with modern elements.

wood bleach dresser makeover using two-parts wood bleaching kit
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French Provincial wood bleach dresser makeover

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When I was done stripping the dresser, I found a blog post on Pinterest that pictured exactly what I had in my head. Amy of the blog The Coastal Oak gave her french provincial dresser a bleached makeover with leather strap handles. Check out her tutorial to see how she did hers. I did a couple of things differently and I want to tell you why and how in today’s post.

The main differences for my wood bleached dresser makeover are that I didn’t remove all the veneer, I ended up using a wood bleaching kit, I didn’t stain or condition the wood and I made my own leather handles.

Below you can see the different versions this dresser has been in…

before photos of french provincial dresser
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…and how bad the paint had started to wear and chip. It wasn’t a good look!

damaged French provincial dresser before
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It really was a dumping ground for everything my daughter didn’t want in her room anymore!

dresser dumping ground for my kids
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Let me show you what I did…

Materials used for the wood bleached dresser makeover

Here is what I did:

Make sure you have wood under your paint layers and that the paint isn’t lead with a test kit.
Remove dresser hardware and take out the drawers.
Time to strip the wood, so make sure you wear your protective gloves, goggles and mask. Since I had so many layers of paint, I used a heavy-duty chemical stripper brushed onto smaller sections at a time. This was such an awful job, not going to lie. The intricate areas of the legs and drawers made the stripping more difficult. After letting the stripper soak in, I used the old toothbrush to scrub those areas. I had to add stripper several times to the same areas to get everything off.
scrapers used to remove the paint
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stripping all the layers of paint from the dresser
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After stripping you have to sand the wood with different sanders for the appropriate areas. A big palm sander for the large flat areas and the detail sanders for the smaller areas. I always try to test out the sandpaper strength first on a more hidden area since the different type of wood reacts differently to the grid. I had pretty soft wood and mostly sanded with 120 grid.
In Amy’s tutorial, she sands the layers of veneer off to reveal the wood underneath. I chose not to do that because I would have had to sand the drawer veneer off too which would have ruined the molding detail. In order to keep that detail, I decided to keep the veneer. Another reason was that only one odd leg of the dresser also had the soft yellow wood of the veneer.

My favorite detail sanding tip

Below is one of my favorite ways to sand little corners and details. I trace Dremel discs on adhesive-backed sandpaper, stick them together, and attach them to the Dremel disc attachment. Be careful though, this gadget is powerful and if the wood is soft, it can really take off layers of wood quickly.
How to cutting Dremel sanding discs for easy detail sanding
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For other detail areas, you can use abrasive cords,  peel and stick sanding gloves,  sanding detailers, steel wool, and sanding sticks which look like Q-Tips.

How to bleach wood

A lot of other wood bleaching tutorials use standard household bleach and putting the piece out into the sun to dry between coats of bleach just like Amy’s tutorial. When I tried the standard bleach I put it in an old Windex bottle and just sprayed it on the wood evenly.
I found a blog post on Bob Villa that mentions that “Two-part” A/B peroxide-based wood bleaches cause a chemical reaction that can also alter the color of the wood itself which is what I wanted to do. My dresser happened to have so many different types of wood in different colors. Like I mentioned above, the top veneer, drawer veneer, and oddly enough the one leg are very soft and yellow wood. The sides had an orange-tinted wood and the front parts are grayish. I was looking for a bleach that would take the color out of the wood to create a little more cohesive look. (Oxalic acid wood bleach is another option but is considered highly toxic by some, so I didn’t even consider it.)
I tried standard bleach on my dresser and compared it to the results of the bleaching kit. My findings were that the standard bleach ruffed the wood up more as well and that the bleaching kit definitely worked better for what I wanted.
Zinsser part A wood bleach and part B wood bleach
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I followed the instructions on the box of the Zinsser wood bleach kit by wiping on Part A first and then Part B with a clean rag. I had used a sponge first but that didn’t work so well.
Make sure to read the instructions! Don’t mix ahead of time. In Bob Villa’s blog post is mentioned to neutralize the wood between bleaching steps but the box doesn’t mention that, so I didn’t either. I literally bleached the heck out of the dresser and feel that placing everything in the sun also helped with the two-part bleaching process. You can tell how the tone changes when the wood is wet. I applied a clear coat too early and it was still very yellow which frustrated me severely because I had to strip those areas again. Sigh!
reaction of two-parts bleach on wood dresser
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You can see the chemical reaction on the corner of the dresser.

Here is a photo of the dresser when I applied the varnish too early.

varnish applied too early on wood bleached dresser
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Look how yellow this finish still looked even though you’d think it would be fine. Just compare the sides that don’t have the varnish on yet. It’s definitely misleading!
So I stripped it again and bleached some more. Next time I will always test the areas with some water again because that’s how it will look when varnish gets added to the wood.
stripping off more varnish
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drawers processing with two-parts bleach
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The sponge I used started to dissolve which are the tiny yellow chunks on the drawers.

wood dresser top after several coats of bleach
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bleach bubbling on the corner of dresser during last coat
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See how the bleach is bubbling on the corner of the dresser during the last coat of bleach.
When I was happy with the results of the numerous coats of two-part bleach, I neutralized the wood by wiping on a 50/50 water and white vinegar mixture onto the entire dresser and letting it dry before moving on.
products used for neutralization of the bleached wood and the varnish and spray painter used
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Here is the dresser before the varnish. If I wouldn’t have to protect the wood from my family, I would have loved to keep it just like this because it looked so pretty. The varnish did change the color again slightly.
bleached dresser before applying protective varnish
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Make sure to wipe down the dresser well with a tack cloth. They are my favorite when removing hair, dust, and lint from a piece before the final varnish step.
I use the sprayer to evenly spray light coats of varnish.
Any type of stain or conditioner changes the color of the raw wood towards yellow tones again which I was trying to avoid. So I skipped the steps of conditioning or sealing the wood before applying a clear coat. I did read however that wood pore sealer increases the smooth feeling of wood but is mostly needed for heavily grained woods. Tightly grained wood, such as birch, beech or maple, will not really need a sealer and I’m pretty sure that this dresser was mostly made out of tight-grained wood. I have also seen other blog posts where people skipped these steps.
Now I don’t know if me jumping straight to clear matte Polycrylic after neutralizing the wood will harm the wood in the long run. I dried out the wood with the bleach and didn’t add moisture back. So we’ll see how it will hold up.
Just like Amy’s tutorial, I sealed my wood with Minwax Polycrylic Clear Matte Protective Finish but I used my favorite paint sprayer. It just works so much better than a paintbrush for this runny varnish. Since it is waterbased the clean up of the sprayer is super easy too.
Before settling on the clear matte Polycrylic finish, I tried out a semi-gloss Polycrylic (which you saw in the photo above) and two different clear wax types. I didn’t like any of them.
When working on a piece of furniture like this, I think the hardest part is figuring out what is the right way for you and your piece. There are so many tutorials out there but every piece is unique with different types of wood and what worked for someone else might not work for you. This was definitely a test of my patience but I am glad I didn’t give up in the end and I love the dresser this way again with my grandmother’s painting above it.
I also gave the wall behind it a much needed new coat of paint. The color is called Quail Egg by Valspar and I also started to paint the living room that way which hasn’t gotten any new paint since 2012. Too many holes, dents, and stains everywhere. I’m not sure how I feel about this color in the living room yet though. It is the exact color of my new velvet curtains.

How to decide if you should use household bleach or a two-part wood bleaching kit to lighten your furniture?

After trying both on parts of my dresser and the desk that I started, I believe that if you are happy with the underlying tone/color of your wood then you can definitely use standard household bleach and putting your piece of furniture in the sun while letting it dry.
If like me, you are trying to take out the tone/color then I think you should use the two-part wood bleaching kit. I really liked using it and the results it provided on my dresser.

How to make leather drawer pulls

I already got comments that some people don’t like the leather drawer pulls on this dresser. I loved them on Amy’s dresser makeover and I love them on mine because I wanted something modern in order to have a contrast to the entire traditional situation.

What is also nice about the DIY leather drawer pulls is that they are very affordable and hide any imperfections around original drawer holes. The desk I’m currently working on has numerous holes drilled and patched and these handles will hide everything.

how to make leather drawer pulls
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Materials used

Instructions

The greatest thing about these leather drawer pulls is that they can hide imperfectly drilled hardware holes and that you can adjust them to the width that you need. It is incredibly hard to find any hardware for existing holes, let alone affordable hardware.

detailed steps about how to make leather drawer pulls
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  1. Make sure you use a cutting mat for this project and the right-sized drill bit and screw length for your specific drawer or cabinet.
  2. Hold the piece of leather on a drawer so you can mark your holes. Make sure to slightly loop the leather up so you can fit a couple of fingers into the loop before marking your hole positions onto the leather.
  3. Use your cutting mat and metal ruler to cut the piece of leather. You will need to take a couple of repeated cuts to get all the way through the thick leather.
  4. Drill the screw holes with the drill bit where you marked the holes.
  5. Insert your screws into the leather. (Image 5 is just to show you how the screws will be kept secure in the back. The washer and nut go onto the screw as pictured.)
  6. Then insert the screws into the holes and securely screw them in place with the washer and nuts.

French Provincial wood bleach dresser makeover

Now I walk back into my hallway happily because I love the look.

finished wood bleached French Provincial dresser
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It is the hallway that leads to our kids’ bathroom and our bedrooms. Look how well the hallway looks with the bathroom!

blush vintage inspired bathroom
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feet of wood bleached dresser
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matching tones of wood of wood bleached dresser
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corner of wood bleached dresser
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I now love how the tone of the wood looks on the top. No more yellow and you can still see the grain.

top of wood bleached dresser with no more signs of yellow wood tones
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No more tones of yellow on the top!

Somehow Maya figured out that she matches everything.

orange tabby sitting on wood bleached dresser
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turning a drab old dresser into a raw bleached wood beauty
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What I am working on next…

I’m currently working on also stripping and bleaching my Queen Anne secretary’s desk. I know some people are super sad about it but it also has been driving me crazy. The finish was damaged in a lot of spots. One corner my old cat Lilly had chewed the varnish off. And the dark wood stain always showed the dust like crazy. I had pondered looking for a new desk on Facebook marketplace and selling mine but there are 100s of almost identical desks for sale and they all look like mine which is why I decided to make it look different than all the others. Plus the size is perfect for the spot where I keep it.

{UPDATE: check out how the light cherry wood desk turned out. It’s all done!}

one drawer stripped on Queen Anne secretary desk
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Some of you have noticed that I have rustic pieces sneaking into my home lately. Like my woodbead garland, burnt wood art, and other things along that line. I attribute that to my new vinyl flooring which is a little rustic as well and I just love it so so much.

Tschüß,

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More of my furniture makeovers

34 Comments

  1. Let me be perfectly honest! Your blog is incredibly interesting and informative. The hours you spend getting everything down perfectly just blows my mind! And that’s after exhausting hours doing the project. All I can say is THANKS!!

    Reply

    1. Wow thank you so much! I definitely love hearing that!

      Reply

      1. This is an amazing tutorial! So much attention to detail and loved your comparisons. You are my favorite blogger and look forward to your daily stories on IG, too! It is so ironic because I don’t ever do DIY projects or crafts!
        Love how your dresser turned out! I’m also a fan of your leather pulls! I can’t wait to see your desk transformation!

        Reply

        1. Thanks Debbie, that is the nicest compliment!

          Reply

  2. Can this be done with MDF? If not, what are your ideas for updating MDF furniture? Thank you for your informative blog.

    Reply

  3. That dresser is so beautiful. You did an amazing job. It looks like an Anthropologie dresser! I love how you gave tips and explained what went wrong so that others don’t take the same steps and regret it. Great tutorial.

    Reply

    1. Thank you! I was ready to pull my hair out when things went wrong and I don’t want that to happen to others 😉

      Reply
  4. cindy allen says:

    This sounds like A LOT of work but the dresser looks fantastic. I love the leather drawer pulls, as well.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Cindy! It is a ton of work

      Reply

  5. Looks great, Julia! I have a couple of pieces I’d consider trying this on, but lots of work!!!

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    1. Thanks Jen, yes it is a ton of work for sure

      Reply

  6. Wow, that looks like a ton of work! I have stripped dressers before and not my favourite thing to do. But your end result is amazing! I also love your painting above it, is that from Germany?

    Reply

    1. Thank you Autumn, it’s definitely not my favorite thing to do either. And yes the painting is from Germany. It used to belong to my grandmother. My great-grandparents were friends with the painter. His name was Willy Hermann (1985-1963)

      Reply

  7. I would never have thought to strip and bleach that style of dresser. Great idea and it looks so fantastic!

    Reply

  8. Your hard work paid off. That is absolutely stunning!

    Reply
  9. Ashleigh Hall says:

    Julia, What a beautiful job you did on this dresser! Thank you so much for the very detailed post on what to do and what NOT to do! It truly is a gorgeous piece and BRAVO on a job so well done!

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much Ashleigh

      Reply

  10. I love the way your dresser turned out, and I also love the leather handles you made for it! I love the color of the bleached wood. I can’t wait to see how your desk turns out!

    Reply

    1. Thanks Heidi, I’m waiting for products to arrive so I can finish the desk. That waiting drives me crazy 😉

      Reply
  11. Cassie Bustamante says:

    this piece is SO incredible! I love the new look and love the hardware!

    Reply

  12. Wow, what an absolute stunning transformation! Makes me want to try it out although I’m not sure I have the patience or talent for it! And like some others have said, it is so nice of you to have such complete detailed written instructions of what you did and tried.

    Reply
  13. Alessandra says:

    Hi
    I love the look of the dresser now! Congratulations on one amazing job.
    I wonder how long did the whole process take?
    I am always afraid of the commitment it would be to even start dong something like this.
    Which part of the process was the most tiring?
    I have some cabinets on the walls in my house – things that people used to do 50+ years ago.
    Everything is wood, but it has this brown-redish tone and such a glossy layer of varnish painted on top of the wood.
    I have been thinking of stripping this varnish off, and I would love to get a bleached look like yours, but I am just afraid of how much work it could be.
    I had a woodworker look at it once and he said it would be easier to just make new cabinet doors throughout.
    (between you and me, I think he was just lazy and thought his profits would be higher by making it from scratch).
    I do not want to through away real wood – it is such a waist.

    Reply

    1. Hi Alessandra and thank you! It is definitely a lot of work but totally doable. You should check out my friend Jaime’s post on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CAa8U1HpwvY/?igshid=krc75cjqi58n she is currently working on transforming her old cabinets in her laundry room. I can’t wait to see her blog post. But she is using a different product and I love the finish. She sealed them with rubiomonocoatusa in cotton white. I couldn’t use that same product because I had used a chemical stripper. I talked to the company and was told that for their product, you have to sand the finish off which was too late for me already. Her cabinets now have a bleached look and I love the door she shows in her post.
      I agree your contractor/woodworker was probably not interested in stripping the cabinets for you. Good luck!

      Reply
  14. aussiebushgirl says:

    What a great job you did on that dresser! I’m waiting with baited breath for your feedback and tips on restoring your bureau (secretary’s desk). I have started to sand my one back, but haven’t progressed beyond that. I’m not sure what wood it is but it looks like an oak veneer. Do you have any tips on sanding back veneer?? At the moment I’m sitting on the fence about finishing, as I’m leaning toward the raw timber look. Looking forward to following your journey. Cheers heather x

    Reply

    1. Hi Heather, I’m dying to finish my dresser. It’s been sitting here in its raw state and I’m waiting for a lime wax I ordered on Amazon and that is stuck somewhere a town over at UPS since Friday. I’m so annoyed. I will try the wax on the side of the drawers first. Mine has some cherry wood that keeps staying red no matter how much I bleach and I’m trying to take that down a notch. Hope it hets here soon.

      Reply
      1. aussiebushgirl says:

        Hi Julia. That’s frustratingly near, yet so far. Please do share the deets of your bureau’s restoration journey when you finally get there. I imagine that, it being made from a red wood, it’s bound to present a few challenges to bring it down a notch, but I can’t think of anyone better equipped to sort out that particular blip, but you! Good luck, my friend. 😀

        Reply
  15. barbara t whitaker says:

    OMG…I’m so happy you decided to remove the paint. My husband & I worked thru the 1970’s stripping all of our “cheap” wood garage sale finds that the prior generation had painted. Its all full circle and wood furniture (re imagined) will take the place of the IKEA crap.

    Reply

    1. Yes, all that paint needs to come off again for sure. My daughter still wants the Ikea crap for her room and I’m fine with that LOL. She will probably end up ruining it again anyways like she did with the one she has right now. Thanks Barabara.

      Reply

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