Easy No-Paint Furniture Refresh

I love all of the painted furniture redo's out there.  I see so many on the blogs of friends and on pinterest and they always leave me oohing and ahhing (is that how you spell that?) but alas, I am not so talented.  I have painted furniture in the past pre-blogging and it turned out okay {iffy at best!} and so I like to do Furniture Refresh-ing.  

I have an antique oak dresser that I bought at one of my favorite antique stores when my oldest son was just a baby.  It has sat in the same place in my living room since I first brought it home.  I have thought about painting it....about covering it in a shabby chic white and brightening up the whole living room but a part of me loves natural wood and would just feel awful covering it up with paint.  

I wanted to give it a refresh for minimal money $$$ and in with little effort {yes...sometimes  I'm plain ole lazy}.  I opted for perking up the oak with General Finishes Satin Finishing Wax in Natural from Rockler and Venetian Bronze Cup Pulls also from Rockler . Since the drawer pulls were NOT the original pulls I didn't mind swapping them out.  Someday I plan to do some research and figure out the style of hardware that would have been used originally but until then this was a very nice compromise.  

The waxing was easy ~ I followed the directions on the bottle buffing out the finish for a smooth and silky sheen.  It also removed some minor scratches which was a nice bonus!

 So what about you ~ furniture painting or furniture refreshing ~ which do you prefer?