Renovating furniture can be a rewarding pursuit, seeing something bedraggled and unloved turned into a stunning piece of furniture is most satisfying, especially when you do all the hard work yourself too! See some great tips below as well as tips on renovating wooden, antique, garden, and leather furniture.
Ten Tips for Restoring Furniture
Tools
Before you start your new hobby you will need some tools so you can actually begin! The following list is a good beginner?s tool set for furniture restoration:
Budget
There is no point in buying a piece of furniture to restore if you don?t have the budget to restore it properly. Some projects will only need a few simple fixes whereas others might need more detailed restoration that could cost a fair amount.
Timings
Always think about how long a project is going to take before you decide to start it. That gorgeous sideboard that seems a right bargain could easily eat into your free time at the weekend, meaning it could become a chore and other things will have to be pushed aside to accommodate it. If have an estimate of how long it is going to take you, you can work out if you realistically have enough spare time to complete it.
Research
Before you get going take a bit of time to research the piece you want to restore. Check for marks or labels that could indicate where it comes from, you never know it could be worth some serious cash. If you were to start fiddling around with an antique you could devalue the item, so it is worth checking first.
Imagine
Imagine what you want the piece to look like once you have finished restoring, this will help to set guidelines of how you want to restore it. If you are restoring for your own home you will also have to imagine how it will look with the rest of your furniture.
Safety
Make sure that whenever you are restoring furniture you keep safety at the forefront of your mind. You can do this by wearing long-sleeved clothing to protect your skin and using safety glasses to protect your eyes. Whenever you are stripping or varnishing a piece make sure you wear a mask and work in a well-ventilated room.
Clean
Whilst it is tempting to jump straight in and get restoring, first of all you need to make sure you clean the piece thoroughly. After potentially years of neglect your newly acquired piece will need a little TLC to get it back looking shipshape. Use a mix of warm water and soap and gently scrub it clean with a soft sponge.
Repair
Before you start sanding or painting anything, it will need repairing. That dodgy leg or handle will be much easier to fix prior to any painting or other such work. The best way to check for areas that might require repair work is to turn the piece over and inspect from that angle.
Paint
To get your new piece looking spic and span you will need to refinish it, which means take off the old finish and create a new one. This is quite a tough job in most cases, so make sure you?re up for it! The best bet is to use a combination of chemical strippers and sanding.
Guide
Keep a notebook of any tips and tricks you pick up along the way, that way you can refer to it whenever you get stuck on something.
Restoring Different Types of Furniture
Restoring Antique furniture
Defining antique furniture is complicated, some stores will label anything 50 years or older as antique, whereas specialists tend to classify anything 150 years or older as antique. Technically, an antique is a piece of furniture with special value because of its age, particularly any pieces that have been embellished with fine artistry.
Generally speaking, you will tend to pay more for antique furniture so it is best avoided until you have really got the hang of restoring furniture.
Garden furniture
Restoring garden furniture is not much different to restoring wooden furniture; however you should finish it off with a weatherproof seal to ensure it can withstand being left outside.
Leather furniture
Restoring leather furniture can be done by using leather re-colouring balm or dye, this can change the shade of leather and help to highlight the age of the piece. Alternatively, you can restore the leather piece back to pristine condition which involves a lot more work!
First of all you will need to apply light filler to the cracked areas, this will leave the leather looking matt and streaky. You can then apply leather repair compound which will smooth the leather. Finish by dying it (if desired) and then applying leather finish, ensuring it stays pristine!
Source: http://www.servicemagic.co.uk/resources/restoring-furniture/
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