Tips For Renovating Old Wooden Furniture To Make It Look Stylish and New

DIY furniture enthusiasts and professional restores have many things in common – they love to give old furniture a new life, they love to renovate old wooden furniture to make it look stylish and new and see opportunities where others see garbage.

Furniture restoration and renovating old furniture require patience, creativity and the ability to put things into perspective. If you want to make your old wooden furniture look new, here are a few tips to consider before starting the project:

Make Sure You Have Time For The Project

This is common sense, of course, but the idea behind this tip is to try to determine how much time you need for a project and to plan your project according to your schedule. In this way you will avoid unnecessary stress and you will find your project fun and relaxing and you won’t consider it another stressful thing you have to do. A small restoration project can turn into a time-consuming task if you do not take everything into consideration. If you’ve done restoration and DIY before, you can estimate the time needed for the project but if you are a newbie, you have to do some research before starting to be sure you have all the information required for the project. Try to find online tutorials that explain in detail the list of steps you have to follow and all the things you need for your specific project.

For example, if you want to refinish wood furniture, you have to find a tutorial that lists all the tools you need and also all the steps you have to follow. Tutorials with videos like this one are great for beginners.

Know What You Want To Do

And by knowing what you want to do we mean knowing what you want the old wooden furniture to look like after finishing the project. Examine the furniture to determine if what you have in mind is possible and what exactly you need for your project to be a success. Again, tutorials are a good idea for those who do not have a lot of experience.

Clean The Old Wooden Furniture Before You Start

Before starting to work on old wooden furniture, make sure to give it a proper clean. Remove all the dirt with a soft sponge soaked in warm water mixed with vegetable oil or use wood cleaning products. For tight spots use a sharp wood dowel and for detailed furniture pieces use soft brushes.

Repair Old Wooden Furniture

After cleaning the old wooden furniture you plan to renovate, check for broken parts and repair or replace them. Some repairs are tougher than others. Sometimes all you have to do is tighten some screws or to replace them if they are rusted. Other times, you need to make tougher repairs that require professional help, such as leg replacements for chairs or other repairs that have to do with the integrity of the furniture piece.

Refinish or Paint Old Wooden Furniture

Probably the favorite part of a DIY enthusiasts or a professional restorer, refinishing or painting the old wooden furniture is the last part and also the most rewarding one. However, this is also the most important part and the part that will determine if your project is a success or a failure. Patience really is a virtue when it comes to old wooden furniture renovation. If you want to refinish a piece, you will need sanding and chemical strippers. After you finished with that process, you can stain or paint the old wooden furniture but not before sanding to get rid of all the bumps and cleaning properly. You have to make sure you use the right type of paint or stain for the wood so do some research before purchasing any type of paint or stain.