First time refinishing

I had no idea how much work it is to refinish a piece of furniture. I found this old TV armoire at DI and I thought this would look great redone. I did not think it would be to hard, boy was I wrong. I worked on it everyday for over a week. It is no where perfect but I learned a lot and know what I would do differently if I had to do it again. There was no way I was going to start over and do it again to fix my mistakes because my biggest mistake happened right before I started to restain. I figure it works.

I was in a hurry and took crappy pictures. so you really can't see the true before.

During

I was super sore from sanding

The finished product!

Next time I do any refinishing I need to find out what kind of wood I am working with. I believe this armiore was a ceder with some red tones in it. There was a few things I should have done before the stain went on that would have gave me a smoother and more even stain.