The Basics of Restoring Wooden Furniture

Solid built wood furniture is difficult to come by now days and often costs a small fortune when bought new. Solid wood furniture often holds a special place in our homes because it is so durable and can easily be passed down from one generation to the next. More and more people are finding older pieces of wooden furniture and refurbishing them back to their previous beauty.

Restoring simple pieces of furniture is always easier when you're first starting out, so you might want to begin with a piece like a small dresser or even an old doorway. The procedure of changing a forgotten piece of wood furniture that has been neglected and restoring it to a eye-catching piece of art can be time consuming but the end results are worth it. If you have persistence and a little bit of talent then it isn't difficult to refurbish most wooden furniture pieces. Here are the general steps you'll follow to restore just about any wooden dressers:

Removing the original finish of a piece of wood furniture is the first daunting task you'll have to undertake. You'll first want to remove any old paint or finish carefully without damaging the wood beneath it. You can reveal the plain wood surface of a piece of furniture with chemicals, specially designed scrapers and lots of arm muscles. Cleaning off an old stain finish can take a long time, so be patient and try not to get frustrated by how long it takes.

Sanding a piece of wood furniture removes any left over stain and it prepares the uncovered wood to accept a new finish of some sort. There are many different tips you can follow when you have to sand antique wooden pieces of furniture with different grit sandpaper. After cleaning off all the old paint you'll want to sand every side of the furniture piece you're refinishing.

You can repair cracked wood pieces with an adhesive and use wood paste to hide any obvious dings. At this point you will need to fix anything that's not working on your wooden piece of furniture. If your wooden furniture piece has any metal hinges or knobs that are broken you'll want to fix them now.

At last, you can move on to putting on a new finish to your old wood furniture piece. When it's time to pick a finish you'll have a lot of options open to you. There are several different types of wood stains you can use to change the look of your furniture and then you should consider what type of polyurethane you're going to use to preserve that stain.

Refinishing an antique piece of furniture can be an incredibly challenging project to complete. Turning a neglected piece of furniture into a beautiful treasure can be a great way to save money. When it's all done it's good to know that you can transform a piece of trash into gold!

Want to learn more about restoring furniture and fixing up your home? Visit our site for lots more home improvement projects with photos and detailed instructions.