The current trend for renovating old furniture
known as Upcycling has really taken off and offers a cheaper and more stylish
way to decorate your home than with modern, imported, mass produced furniture.
There are a number of shops and online suppliers offering a range of second
hand restored and painted furniture in a colour of your choice at a reasonable
price but for those of you who want save even more money and have the
satisfaction of creating your own unique style, this blog is for you.
The best place to pick up a bargain piece of
furniture is at a local auction, house
clearance sale, jumble sale, charity shop, Facebook for sale pages, Preloved,
Gumtree, Freecycle and the for sale board in the local newsagents or supermarket.
Look for something which is as cheap as possible and free of woodworm or rot but don’t be put off
by dark wood stain or a dour 1950’s appearance. Cracks, dints, chips and
scratches can be filled, filed, sanded and painted over so don’t worry either if
it’s not a pristine piece.
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| The dark wood stain hides a lovely oak chest |
I bought
this chest of drawers at a garage action recently and although it looks a bit
shabby it is made of oak and has some really nice period features as well as
some lovely decorative drop handles. It was probably a bedroom piece originally
but will work nicely as a hall table.
The first job is to check for any loose decorative
pieces and remove them prior to sanding. Don't forget to replace them prior to painting. Then
remove the drawers and take off the handles. If you intend to restore any part
of your piece as unstained, varnished wood then you will need to carefully
remove any traces of old varnish, paint or stain by either sanding or careful use
of a gel stripping chemical product such as Nitromorse. You could also use an electric hot air
stripper but do take great care not to burn yourself or scorch the furniture!
This stage can be very tedious and time consuming
to achieve by hand but a thorough job at the preparation stage will make all
the difference to the finished effect. When stripping wood I use our precision blasting equipment
loaded with baking soda, the gentlest of mediums for this process which achieves
fantastic results in a fraction of the time and doesn’t harm the wood. For the decorative metal handles I use the abrasive below. Our equipment makes a great job of restoration, so if
you don’t have the time and patience to do your own furniture preparation, you
can always bring it to us here at Yorkshire Precision.
If you intend to paint your piece then it’s not
necessary to strip the surface materials off completely and providing that it
is evenly varnished all over then you can key the varnish ready for the new
paint with a light, even sanding all
over. If the varnish is missing in places then you need to ensure that there is
a smooth transition from the varnish to the bare wood as this will show up once
it’s painted.
At Yorkshire Precision we achieve
this by using the media at a lower pressure to key the existing varnish or
paint and soften the edges to blend it into the surface material.
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| The pretty sprig of fuchsia on these original handles could be polished or painted. |
Now the hard work is all over its time to get
painting! Make sure that your piece is clean, dry and completely free of dust
and mask off any areas that you don’t wish to paint. If you intend to put a
clear varnish or stain on any part of the furniture do this first as it’s
easier to wipe the paint off the varnish. Check the paint manufactures
instructions for recommended number of coats, primers and drying times etc and
ensure your piece is left in a dust free environment to dry.
Once the paint is completely dry you can use a
tinted wax or a spray lacquer to protect or age the finish or even stencil on
some decorative detail in a contrasting colour. If the handles are worth
keeping then you can clean, stain, paint or polish them and put them back on.
If you want to make a bit more of a feature of your piece you could also buy
some more unusual handles to really make your piece standout.
So why not have a go at creating your own upcycled
furniture and if you get stuck at the prepping stage and want an effective and easy
alternative, just give us a call!
