Should Have Left it at Good Enough

I had made excellent progress on stripping that dresser I got the other day. In fact on Sunday it looked like this:

The color is off a bit because it was late in the evening. The top turned out to be a gorgeous dark color wood. I’m not really sure what it is. I think it might be cherry but I’m not 100% certain. I am fairly certain that it is not oak, maple or walnut!

I am using Citristrip stripping gel so that I can work on this in the warmth of the house. The weather here in Tennessee keeps fluctuating between freezing and t-shirt weather, mostly freezing.

This is what the top looked like after the first coating and scraping of Citristrip. That paint was on thick!  

This is what it looked like after the second coat was scraped off:

 

Finally after the third coat I uncovered this beautiful top:

I’m planning on painting the rest of the dresser so I really should have called that good, but I couldn’t bring myself to add yet another layer to the poor base. It was calling out to me that it couldn’t breathe! I really want those carving details to pop when I re-paint it. I think adding another layer of paint on top of the already thick paint will just hide all the details. So I slapped on a coat of Citristrip on the whole base before I could really think it through.

I ended up with this:
It doesn’t look horrible right? In fact I’m kind of digging the distressed look on the side panel, but sadly hubby is not. Well it only looks this good because the side panel is pretty flat. All the carving details are on the front of the dresser and on those lovely legs.

The other side looks like this:
Just FYI, it is much easier to work with Citristrip when it’s goopy and gel like rather than when it starts to dry. I called it quits at this point last night. I am getting ready to tackle it again this evening. I went out and bought a nylon stripper brush to help me get into those nooks and crannies and also grabbed more Citristrip! This time I plan on working on small sections at a time so the gel doesn’t dry on me. By the way this picture is showing the true color of the wood.

I know what I’