Whether you are being crafty and trying to bring life to an old piece of furniture or if you’re trying to restore a priceless family heirloom, restoring furniture takes a lot of focus and effort! Breathing life into a piece is time consuming, but it’s well worth the wait. Just follow the process of restoring old furniture step by step to get those old pieces of furniture back in vogue.
1. Do Your Research
There are a lot of things to take into consideration when you are restoring old furniture. First you’ll need to know where to start, what products work best, what finishes you’ll need to match a certain piece. So, before you even start restoring any piece of furniture, you’ll want to do your research!
2. Gather Materials
Once you have an idea of what you need to do to restore the old piece of furniture then you’ll need to gather all the materials that will be used during the restoration process. From certain tools to the finishes and polishes, you’ll want to have everything close by when you being your newest project!
3. Imagine What You Want
Before you begin restoring an old piece of furniture, you’ll want to know exactly what you want to do. Are you trying to keep the piece exactly the same or are you totally revamping the piece and breathing new life into it? Don’t go into the project blind not knowing exactly what you’ll want. If you do that, you might not be happy with the outcome of the restoration!
4. Safety First
Not only is restoring old furniture time consuming, but it can be hazardous if you do not take the right precautions! You always want to be working with the proper tools and wearing protective gear at all time. Rubber gloves, long sleeves, and eyewear will protect you from any chemicals that you might be working with. You’ll also want to set up shop in a well-ventilated area before you begin the restoration process. Whenever you are done with a certain tool that might be covered in a particular solvent or chemical, make sure to store them away according to the instruction on the package. And if your piece has an older paint finish, then proceed with caution. The old paint might contain led, which you’ll want to have proper ventilation before you begin stripping the material off the piece.
5. Cleaning, Stripping, and Refinishing
When restoring an old piece of furniture, sometimes it can be as easy as just giving the old piece a good cleaning! If you’ve done all the cleaning you could, and the piece isn’t to your satisfaction than you may need to resort to a solvent cleaning method or start from scratch and completely strip the old piece of furniture and refinish it! To strip a piece of furniture, you’ll need to use a tough stripping formula to loosen up old coats of finishes for scraping. Work from top to bottom and apply the formula liberally in a single direction and then wait. Stripping an old piece of furniture can take a lot of time and patience. Once you’re happy then the fun part beings, refinishing! Get creative and breathe life into a new piece that will change it forever! You won’t believe the transformations that your old furniture will go through! For more information on furniture restoration, click here!
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