from Gardners 2 Bergers: Restoration Hardware Inspired Mahogany Dresser

It's my favorite kind of project! A Restoration Hardware inspired piece! I loving getting that look at an affordable price, don't you? Let's turn an old garage sale find into a RH masterpiece!

We got this old mahogany dresser, but this project will work on any wood type. Here's our inspiration, let's get started...

Materials

Furniture Piece, this was a Mahogany desk
1 Garbage Bag
Citristrip
Mineral Spirits
Palm Sander
Light Oaking by Weatherwood Stains
Flat Varnish by Weatherwood Stains
ASCP Paris Gray, Clear and Black Wax

We started with an old mahogany dresser. Here's the best "before" that I have:

1.] STRIP: First you'll want to apply a thick layer of Citristrip to the top. Citristrip has a tendency to dry out before it can eat away at all the layers of stain and lacquer. So covering the wet stripper with a garbage bag helps keep the moisture in while it works.

2.] SCRAPE: When the stripper turns white, it's ready to be scraper off. Remove the bags and scrape as much of the mixture off, as you can. You'll want to try and get down ti the raw wood if you can. But being careful not to scrape or damage the wood itself.

3.] CLEAN: You will want to wipe the table down with mineral spirits and a rag to remove any existing residue. This should remove any sticky residue from the tabletop.

4.] SAND TOP: Here's the labor portion. You want to use a palm sander and 80 grit sandpaper to make sure the wood is completely down to raw.

5.] PAINT: Paint the base with a good chalky finish or one step furniture paint, this was Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. The zinc effect was created using Paris Gray as a base. Then layering Clear Wax and accenting with Black Wax. You can see how this was super low matte sheen. Perfect the that Restoration Hardware look.

6.] STAIN: Used Weatherwood's Light Oaking stain, which gives a driftwood gray on ay wood species. You can apply multiple coats of stain and get darker effects with each layer. his desk was made of mahogany, a real orangey-red wood. So we layered 2 coats of stain on this, fortunately you can apply them real fast back to back within minutes (unlike traditional wood stains!) so your project can still get done quickly!

7.] SEAL: We used Flat Varnish from Weatherwood to seal the wood. When you seal the wood, the color will lighten slightly. Be prepared, but isn't the effect just great?!