Looking Beyond The Brown: A Stinky Sideboard Restoration

 

 

 

Before: a hulking great dirty beast of piece. Resplendent with 60+ years of lumpy old paint and dubious stainage. And oh the odour - deliciously rancid!

I've always adored a mucky furniture restoration project. I find the whole process extremely therapeutic; giving what is normally a horrid brown dirty thing a brand new identity. I source every piece with a purpose in mind, with my favoured eras being 1930s to 60s. Fortunately there's a lot of furniture of this age around (probably due to the fact it was built so solidly) and can be picked up for a song if you know where to look and have that all important vision when you're out wombling...

Equipment needed for a basic furniture update:

• Transport & Muscles: or a toothy smile if you need help humping a piece into the back of your car
• Tape measure: carry one at all times, along with a list of the dimensions of available spaces in your home
• Outside space: for stripping. The furniture by the way (Doris does not in anyway advocate outdoor nudity, particularly when using power tools and takes no responsibility for injuries occured if you choose to do so...)
• Tarpaulin/groundsheet/large old sheet: to place under the piece. Also useful for covering ones modesty if the postman happens to call
• Heat gun/paint stripper: being a Health & Safety aware kind of Doris, I try to avoid using these as much as possible due to the potential health hazards. Although on this occasion I did not avoid said use of (my lungs are now empty crisp packets). See also Outside space
• Sand paper: light & medium grit
• Sugar soap, cleaning rags: for cleaning. Obviously
• Screwdrivers: to remove hardware
• Pva glue & Wood filler: for those moments of 'oops'
• Paint: primer/undercoat, eggshell or gloss
• An iron constitution: and unmanicured hands (in situations such as these 'tis a fortunate thing that the princess gene has completely bypassed CD)
• A windless day: I'll come to that later

Look beyond the brown-ness. Imagine your finished subject in an off-white, soft cream or grey. Lighter colours for large pieces are best as they look less imposing, fitting into most settings.

 

Stripping the piece using a heatgun. Speedy and hazardous.

 

Using Mr Doris's orbital sander. Note health and safety footwear: birkenstocks and socks.

Phwoar - a more attractive sight you'll never see...

 

 

 

Cleaning before paint application - using sugar soap and warm water.

 

 

 

Left drawer, after - scrubbed up rather well hasn't it?

 

 

 

 Applying initial coat of water based primer.

 

Now remember my comment about the need for a windless day? - advice which comes about by way of experience. I thought (in my blind foolishness) that a windy day would be ideal conditions to do a messy, smelly job such as this. However the windyness was such that when I started to strip the piece bits of crispy, curled up old paint flew all over the driveway. And it's virtually impossible to clear up because the more one brushes the more the paint breaks down into tiny pieces, making it even more impossible to retrieve. Which made Mr Doris really cross; telling me off for being a scruffy old sort. And I had to go and retrieve my unmentionables from next door's tree, which had blown off the washing line. Most undignifed...

Anyway all traumas overcome, I then moved onto the most-fun-because-it's-final stage: topcoating (2 of). Another windy day ensued, causing bits of grass from Mr Doris's recent lawnmowing endeavour to stick to the wet oilbased paint. Retribution for trashing the driveway during the stripping process, I expect.

 

 

 

Dried, grass and insects removed, hardware replaced. SOLD to a good friend and neighbour to start a new life as a Welly Cupboard. Said neighbour now wants a cushion for the top...