Blissfully Chaotic: My Dresser Redo!!

My new favorite blog, Primitive & Proper, which I just discovered last week, is having a furniture link party!

Since I am brand new to the East Coast and New York, I have been working like crazy around this house. It is our first house and I am taking great pride in it. The funny thing is I can't sit still. My husband tells me to take it easy and relax, he just doesn't understand that working around the house and refinishing are my ways of relaxing and taking it easy. Anyways, this is a dresser that Patrick got for his clothes when we got here in September. I actually had a set exactly like this one when I was a child. This dresser however had the misfortune of having someone painting the gold inlay a horrible black. And since the dresser was made in the 80's and is not real wood, it made this project a little difficult. The drawers where easy enough, but the varnish or whatever the coated the dresser in was impossible to strip. I tried sanding first but after 7 minuts of that not working I tried stripper, which did not working very well either. So with a combo of the both I managed to at least make the surface a little abrasive.