What's the best way to refinish a solid wood dresser?

A friend of mine gave me an antique dresser that is in bad shape visually. It seems pretty solid although the drawers are a little flimsy. I want to refinish it but have never attempted anything like it. Should I just sand it and re-stain it or is there something specific I should do?

BTW - It's currently stained and I don't necessarily want to paint it. I'd rather stain it a similar shade if possible.

without knowing how bad it is, one thing you can do you will have to make the call on it. You can sand it down with out stripping it down to bare wood. What you want to do is too sand the top layer of finish off. You will not get every thing, Use 220 grit for this. Once you have it sanded, You have to find a very close match to the stain color you have now. Put two coats of stain on. once it is stained you can put a clear coat of poly on it. gloss or satin. Use black foam brushes for the clear coat. Between coats you can use the 220 for this also get some tack rags too.

I took woodshop and loved that class, so if I were you I'd do this:
1. Sand it w/100 to 150 grit sand paper, this will get all
the stain off so you can start fresh
2. Get the color of stain you would like at a hardware store
and just get a paint brush but get paper towels to wipe
away the excess stain do about 2-3 layers then
LIGHTLY sand again w/220 grit sand paper
3. To get it all nice and shiny get clear coat then
once that dries again LIGHTLY sand but this time use
600 grit sandpaper
4. You may use wax but I personally don't like to

I know this sounds like a long process but its worth it in the end! You can get all the supplies at a hardware store (Ace hardware for example). If you need anything else just e-mail me!

~Katie

Here is a primer on stripping:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/featur...

Removing the old finish by sanding only is an ineffective and very slow way to go. Use a stripper.

When you get there, here's an article on finishing:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/featur...

If you want to keep it close to the same color I would just sand the old varnish off and stain.