You can refurbish old or damaged furniture yourself, giving it a second life. How to do it?
The way you refinish furniture always depends on the effect you want to achieve. You can coat the furniture with a clear stain to highlight its natural beauty or paint it with opaque paint to completely change the look of the furniture. In furniture restoration there is also an intermediate option – you can paint a piece of furniture in an unusual color, while not painting the rings – various varnish stains are ideal for this purpose.
Before you start restoring furniture, you need to prepare for the job. If you are restoring furniture in a room, you should protect the floor and remove unnecessary items from the room (if possible). It is a good idea to do the restoration outside – you cannot restore furniture in a sunny position, it is better to do it in the shade.
In restoring furniture will be useful:
When carrying out the work, it is worth having gloves and safety goggles.
In the renovation of furniture, one of the most important steps is to remove the old paint or varnish. When the layers come off on their own, you can rub them off with a sander and coarse-grained paper, and then smooth the surface with fine-grained paper. To expose the wood grain, remove the old solid wood paint.
You can prepare a coat of solid wood, natural veneer or plywood furniture in this way.
The old surface on solid wood furniture can be removed with a blowtorch. For veneered or plywood furniture, be very careful – it is recommended to “gently” use the sander so as not to damage the surface of the furniture. If the plywood furniture has not been restored before, then very often it is enough just to dull the surface with fine-grained paper.
The next step is to dust off the surface of the furniture. It is best to do this with a vacuum cleaner. It is also advisable to vacuum the entire room in which the furniture will be painted, as dust particles may fall on the wood covered with paint, which will be visible after painting. After vacuuming the entire piece of furniture, wipe it gently with a damp cloth.
It often happens that “unwanted inhabitants” live in wooden furniture. You may notice small holes in the wood. In order to get rid of woodworms, it is enough to use appropriate chemicals. It is best to pour the chemical into the holes created by woodworms and then fill them.
While removing the old paint coating, you can damage the surface of the wood. Use a wood filler to fill in the gaps. The shade of the compound should always match the color of the wood.
A thin layer of joint compound should be applied to the wood and wait for it to dry. Depending on the needs, another thin layer of joint compound is applied or the surface is sanded and dusted. In case of very large defects in the wood, several layers of joint compound should be applied.
The last stage in restoring furniture is painting it. You can use an opaque paint, such as white, blue, gray or stain. All wood products available on the market protect the wood coating against harmful effects of external factors.
It should be remembered that oils strengthen the wood structure by penetrating “inside”, while varnishes and stains create a protective layer on the wood.
Restoring furniture on your own is an easy, but laborious task. It is worth your time to create a beautiful and unique piece of furniture.
