We inherited 2 beautiful dressers a few years ago. They are lovely and I do like them. The problem is that they have always had a bad smell, musty/moldy. Plus living near the ocean they seem to have gotten worse. My guess is that they have absorbed the moisture in the air. We've periodically wiped them down with a water/bleach solution and it helps momentarily but the smell always comes back.
It's getting to the point that almost anything we put in the drawers and sits in there more than a few days absorbs this musty smell.
My first thought was to take them to the dip and strip, but the outside of the dressers are veneered. Do you have suggestions on what we can do about this problem?
Try putting a coat of clear shellac on the insides of the drawers and drawer supports.
Bleach by itself will not kill mold spores, so the application is not solving that problem.
The shellac will stick to/cover any areas of fine mold and prevent regrowth.
The only caveat when choosing shellac is it has a short shelf life---although either MinWax or Zinsser makes a three year shelf life product---with a date stamp on each container.
Or, you can get a couple gallons of denatured alcohol(be prepared for the price to be VERY high) and buy enough shellac flakes to mix a fresh batch.
