Refinishing & Refurbished Furniture

I have a question for you.

     Have you ever had a vintage or antique piece of furniture that you love but it's dated and doesn't fit your current home decor? You are torn with what to do with it? You ask yourself; what can you do? Should you throw it out? Sell it on Facebook Market Place or Craig's List? NO!! DON'T DO THAT!! Do what I did years ago, I taught myself how to refinish the furniture piece or you can commission someone to refinish the piece to your taste. Refinishing or refurbishing furniture, will keep the furniture out of landfills, you are holding on to a solid wood piece of furniture that you can have forever. Sustainability, is the most important reason to refinish your piece of furniture, you can refinish over and over again.

     When you refinish furntiture, you can strip it down from the old finish and update it with a more updated finish with new stain and new hardware, you can do a light sanding and select a color that will fit in with your decor and paint the piece, also adding the new hardware to update the piece.

     I've refinished vintage furniture and also worked on a few commisioned pieces for clients. Refinishing/Refurbishing furniture is therapeutic for me, especially sanding.  All of the wood furniture in my home is refinished and it fits my design aesthetic and design style. You can take an antique or vintage piece and refinish it to fit into your design style. If you need inspiration, go to Pinterest! They are loaded with tones of inspiration photos. Your creativity is the perfect way to put your own style to the furniture. 

     The dining set below is mine.  The China Cabinet I received from a lady that was moving, she gave it to me, the same with the dining table and chairs, I received from a friend that no longer wanted it. I jumped on both of those real quick. First, was the China Cabinet; it was this ugly stain color with hints of orange so I painted it white, when all of the rage was having all white furniture, boy that was not me at all. I refinished the dining table and chairs in what was a Pickling stain, it gave the furniture a distressed finish. I quickly was over it after a few years. I stripped the China Cabinet first to it's raw wood (oak) staining it with Early American stain (one coat of stain, no poly finish) I removed the glass from the back and sides of the cabinet and added beadboard to both the back and sides; I also removed the glass shelves and added wood shelves. Changed the knobs on the doors. The chairs as you can see were were nice but had the ugliest fabric on them. I had done the pickling on the chairs as well and reupholstered them in a cream linen fabric. (This was my first time doing upholstery, so it wasn't my best. I stripped all the fabric off the chairs down to the bare bones. Added better back support along with new cushions for the seats. I stripped all of the pickling off to the bare wood, stained it with Early American stain as well. I reupholstered the backs with a beautiful fabric from Waverly, the cushions were covered in drop cloth fabric for the ease of cleaning any stains. The process for the drop cloth is another topic. Once upholstered I made the cording for the trim to cover the staples holding the fabric to the chairs. The results turned out beautiful. 

Supplies you need for refinishing/refurbishing, a great sander, sand paper, scrapers, spatulas for filling holes, paint brushes, wood filler, drill, work gloves, safety glasses, polyurethane (waterbased is best.  It doesn't yellow on the furniture) Furniture paint, assortment of stains in your choie of colors, drop cloth (I prefer the blue ones) construction paper in rolls, and rubber gloves. For uphonstry you will need upholstry pliers, staple remover, staple gun, glue gun for trimming.

     Good Luck, if you are brave enough to take on this fun work. We incorporate it in our design model to assist our clients in redecorating their homes.