So far in our D.I.Y. series, we’ve hung things on walls, patched the holes we’ve made, and fixed squeaky floors. It’s time to have a little fun. This month, we’ll bring some old furniture back to life.
You probably have a piece of furniture that’s in need of a little T.L.C. — a family heirloom, or a favorite table that’s looking a little battered. The desk I’m restoring here was a curb rescue, and it really was in poor looks when I found it — all the worse after spending a night in the rain. But as soon as I touched it I could tell it was wonderfully well made, and I loved its simple lines and balanced proportions.
To revive it, I had to go through all four steps of a complete furniture restoration: clean, repair, recolor and refinish. And there’s no getting around it: It took some time and patience. But it didn’t take any particular skill or specialized tools. I’m confident you can do it. And you can break up the work to fit your schedule.
The good news is, few restorations require nearly so much effort. Most need nothing more than a thorough wipe-down, a few touch-ups with stain to conceal minor damage, and a bit of wax to bring back the original luster.
In fact, if there’s one lesson to keep top of mind during any restoration project, it’s that going too far is the fatal mistake. Old furniture is beautiful because its shows its age. Tabletops fade to gold in the sun. Chair arms darken where hands have touched them. My desk was originally a uniform amber tone; its rich patina came from decades of service in New York classrooms.
Had I gotten rid of that, I’d have gotten rid of what makes the desk wonderful. So I didn’t try to make the finish uniform again. I just harmonized its elements by hiding splotches and stains that jarred the eye. I think of it like tuning a piano: You’re not making the keys sound alike. You’re getting them to play together.
Most of what I know about furniture restoration I learned from Tom Johnson, a master of the craft whose soft-spoken YouTube videos are a treasury of practical instruction. He closes every project the same modest way: “I think it looks pretty good.”
Words to work by.
Let’s gather the tools.
The tools and finishing products I chose can all be used inside a home or apartment — no loud machinery or noxious fumes. You may need to visit a specialty store or order online for some of them.
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Microfiber towels for initial cleaning
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A narrow putty knife — ideally one with a very thin edge — to lift stubborn gunk off the wood surface
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A dental scraper for cleaning dirt out of cracks and holes
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Water-based wood filler for fixing the cracks and holes. I used black filler for the color contrast; neutral filler can be dyed to match the wood.
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Stain pens for tinting small blemishes to match the existing wood finish.
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To recolor larger areas of the desk, I used alcohol-soluble dyes. (You don’t need these unless you’re facing the same task.) Dissolve them in 99 percent rubbing alcohol or high-proof grain alcohol. Everclear works great.
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Sandpaper (in 150, 180 and 220 grit), gray Scotch-Brite, and grade #0000 steel wool, for smoothing wood filler and damaged wood, gentle scrubbing and final surface finishing. A little metal polish got rid of the tarnish on the drawer pulls.
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Howard Feed-N-Wax and Osmo Poly-X. Feed-N-Wax wood conditioner gives general protection and sheen to almost any wood surface, including finished ones. It’s great stuff to keep on hand. Hard wax oil finishes such as Poly-X should only be applied to bare wood. Their durability and repairability make them ideal for tabletops and counters (and Poly-X is food safe).
Let’s get started.
1. Clean and Repair
There’s no special trick to cleaning furniture, but there are some don’ts. Don’t use oil soap (sorry, Murphy), which leaves a greasy residue. And don’t use those lemony aerosols (sorry, Pledge), which leave a silicone residue.
If you need to do any repairs to the wood, water-based wood filler is more pleasant to use than solvent-based because it gives off fewer fumes. (Water-based fillers will be labeled as such; I’ve had success with Goodfilla and Famowood.) Use it to fill in cracks, gaps and nail holes, pressing it in with the putty knife and scraping away the excess as you go. Wipe away with a damp rag what the scraping doesn’t get. If you’re filling long gaps between boards like I did on the desktop, masking them off with painter’s tape greatly reduces the cleanup time.
When the filler is dry (usually an hour or less), carefully sand it flush with the surface, taking care not to remove much of the surrounding finish.
2. Recolor
With the wood clean and smooth, you’re ready to address blemishes in the color.
Stain pens are invaluable in any furniture restoration. The fine-tipped Mohawk graining pens I used can recolor fine scratches without staining the wood around them. You can also use them to dye wood filler to match the furniture’s color and to re-create grain patterns to disguise bleached areas.
As you work, step back from the piece regularly and look at it from across the room. Your eye needs distance to distinguish between natural color variations that should be left alone and blotches that need treatment.
The pens I used contain alcohol-soluble dyes (not oil-borne pigments), which have a useful property: The more layers you apply, the more saturated the color gets. That lets you creep up on the color you’re aiming for. A set of three pens comprising a yellow shade (a.k.a. pine or amber), a red (mahogany, cherry), and a brown (walnut, Van Dyke) will let you match almost any wood color by layering.
Work carefully, though: Dye stains are permanent.
3. Refinish
Wood finishes seal the wood, protect it against spills, and give it a uniform sheen. There are many varieties, so I picked two that are easy to apply and that I’ve used with great results.
For the legs, frame and drawer fronts of my desk, I used Howard Feed-N-Wax. It’s an all-purpose wood conditioner and protectant, and is essentially a thin paste of orange oil, mineral oil and natural waxes. It’s meant for reviving furniture whose original finish is still present but has begun to look faded, and it’s all many D.I.Y. restorations will need. You just wipe a layer on, let it soak in for 15 or 20 minutes, then wipe off any excess and buff with a rag. It leaves a soft, satiny sheen and gives lovely depth to wood grain.
For the top of the desk, I used Osmo Poly-X, a so-called hard wax oil. Made of vegetable oils, wax and a mild solvent, hard wax oils are only applied to bare wood, not over existing finishes. (The top of the desk had been completely stripped before I found it — a layer of adhesive vinyl sheeting was someone’s attempt to protect the bare wood.) They are easy to apply, create a durable, stain- and water-resistant finish, and are easy to repair if damage does occur: You just wipe another dab on the damaged area.
The initial coat of Poly-X revealed some patches where the wood had lost all of its natural color over the years, so while the Poly-X was still wet, I quickly brushed the bleached areas with thin layers of two alcohol-soluble dyes that I’d mixed up — specifically, W.D. Lockwood red mahogany and TransTint honey amber. This brought their color to a close match with rest of the top. A second coat of Poly-X, applied a day later, sealed the color in.
Here’s the finished desk.
I think it looks pretty good, though it’s definitely not perfect. I didn’t address several deep stains on the top of the desk, for example. That would have meant using oxalic acid to remove an iron stain and a strong solvent to draw out an ink spill. Neither technique is dangerous, but they push the limits of an indoor, weekend project.
I may try them next time, though. Which, for me, will come soon — because I didn’t just find one desk on the curb. Lucky me, I found a matching pair.
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