In addition to being a crochet and fiber artist, I also remake furniture. I get much joy from thrifting the old and ugly and making it fabulous again! I try to mix it up 50/50 with my crochet and furniture redo. Its good to get up and move when a craft like crochet requires sitting. Since I work for myself and can make my own hours and work from home – I can decide what to work on each day – but, my most perfect day is taking my morning coffee to my office studio room and crocheting quietly while drink my coffee for a few hours and then getting outside to paint! What is more perfect?
Painting also has seasons, where crochet does not. So, if the weather is freezing or bad or rainy or even super hot and humid, NO painting gets done and I work inside. I also repurpose and upcycle what I refer to as “smalls.” I might do a post on that in the future. Looking at junk and old ugly pieces takes on a whole new life when you are looking at how you can change it and make it new.
I wanted to share some before and afters and give you ALL MY BEST TIPS on making your drab pieces fabulous once again. All old, depressing furniture deserves a new life. Your old and ugly pieces deserve a second life! And, I am hoping to convince you to go thrifting, “yard-selling”, and visit some estate sales to look at the old a little differently.
Below is my latest piece. I just finished this one yesterday and will apply poly today.
This handmade cabinet is solid wood and structurally was in perfect condition, but it was dark brown and dirty. Any time I find a handcrafted piece I feel such happiness! I believe this piece was crafted for a lady to sit between her washer and dryer and hold her laundry supplies that is where I found it at the estate sale and where it fit perfectly!
The first steps to any refab is to remove the hardware and clean the piece. You need to see what your working with. On this piece, I knew I was gonna sand the entire piece because the old finish (poly, shellac or such) was cloudy and lifting in places. You can always tell on a piece that has been finished with a poly type sealer if it needs sanded- if old and not stored in good conditions this poly protection will get cloudy looking and you will probably also notice it “peeling” off. No matter what type of paint you are using – I will say that louder for all those that insist you can just “chalk” paint a piece with little to no prep – IF A PIECE HAS A FINISH ON IT LIKE POLY – if it’s shiny – YOU NEED TO LIGHTLY SAND IT FIRST – you don’t want to go through the entire painting process and have all your paint scratch off. One good way to test your project is to paint a small area and let it dry – then, do the fingernail test. Run your fingernail down the paint – not too hard but everyday kind of hard – and if it scratches off your piece needs more prep.
Like I said above, the first step is to remove your hardware and clean the piece. I always just use plain vinegar. Vinegar is safe, non-toxic, gentle and evaporates quickly and doesn’t hard the wood, but it does degrease and remove dirt and oil and grime. I just save up all our old bathrags for this and also cut up old towels. Clean, clean, clean!
After cleaning and when your piece is dry you want to inspect it for an damage and repairs that need to be made and any scratches that you want to lightly sand down. I do recommend a hand sander – it will save you tons of time and headache. I usually start with a rough grit sandpaper to remove a finish and then go over it with a fine grit.
The piece below is a desk that I just refinished for my new office/studio room. The piece was in terrific condition! It only had some wear and tear and scratches on the top so I sanded off the top finish and go most of the scratches out and prepared to stain it.
I usually use a Prestain Wood Conditioner. You can find this next to the stain at your hardware store. The prestain makes your stain take on a more even look when you are workign with hardwoods and also veneers.
After sanding the top and doing my prestain, I applied the stain. I used the color Kona in this desk. I like to stain very soon after getting a piece ready. I don’t like to wait much time with bare wood – especiallly living in a humid place. After I apply stain, I work on the rest of the piece – the polyurethane or polycrylic protection is always my last step. I also like to apply stain BEFORE any painted part because I tend to sling stain everywhere! It is much easier to wipe or sand stain off your unfinished piece than try to get it out of a freshly painted piece.
So, after applying the stain, I cleaned the rest of the desk. Remove all drawers – don’t skip this step trying to save time. Remove them and clean everything good and then you can start painting. I mix up my own chalk paint. These days I have been using Behr Marquee paint to make my chalk paint and love it! The Behr Marquee has become my favorite paint. I just get the small sample sizes and they are usually the perfect amount for a big piece like this. I had paint leftover from my sample after doing this big desk – so, for about $3.50 you can get enough paint for your project.
I added just a little distressing to this piece. I usually use a fine grit sand paper like 220 or my sanding sponge to go around the edges and corners. I personally do not like the look of distressing a piece right in the middle of the piece – it just doesn’t look like normal wear and tear. If you do too much distressing in the middle of your furniture it looks “polka dotted” when you get done. It’s always best to lightly distress and then if you want to do more – do more – if you do too much all at once you have to go back and paint more.
I encourage you to really look at a piece with your “new” vision and not what it looks like before. Take this piece below for example. How really ugly is it? This piece came to me in a storage building of furniture that I purchases and I probably would not have ever bought it, but since I had it I needed to make it work! I decided I was going to make an ottoman out of it so my husband cut a piece of board to give me just a little overhang on the table and I wrapped that in batting and fabric – after it was cleaned and painting i’ts a whole new piece of furniture and so fresh! I also refreshed the hardware. For my hardware, I really love Rustoleum for metal paint. It is very durable!
Sometimes, when I am out thrifting, I find pieces that are so fabulous and perfect that I can’t believe they are still there when I stumble upon them. Take this piece below for example. The first thing that caught my eye was this hardware! It’s amazing! Then I notice the size of this dresser – it was perfect – not too high or big or wide – just the right size for a kids room dresser- and then I always check the drawers to see if they slide well. If the drawers do not slide well or are broken and you don’t have the ability to fix them (I have my husband who is able to fix drawers and runners), but if you don’t have the skill to fix messed up drawers/runners it needs to be a hard pass for you. Don’t purchase a piece that does not have good working drawers. This piece had pretty great drawers – and look at this paper lining them! As a matter of fact, this dresser looked like the inside had never been used. It did have some weird texture spray type surface on top that was gritty and really odd – there was no removing it and no painting over it so my handy husband cut a new surface for it and look at the final result.
There are also times when I am shopping the thrift stores and find a truly fabulous piece with a really horrible paint job – that was the case with this pink book shelf. It was Pepto Bismol pink! I wasn’t sure what was under all this shocking pink, so I set to work with my sander. After removing many of the layers of pink, I was really happy with keeping it lighter pink and heavily distressed, so I sanded and sanded and sanded and then cleaned. After cleaning I went over this piece with a little white “glaze” that I made. (I make my own glaze sometimes by watering down some paint and “mopping” it on with a damp rag.) – and then I followed with some java glaze. This piece turned out quite shabby and cute if I do say!
Below is a vintage mahogany desk that we found at an estate sale. It was in good condition. It needed some work and the handles needed some repair, but after a good cleaning and refinishing the top and painting the bottom it was ready for its next life. And don’t despair if a piece has some veneer damage (see the bottom drawer?) just distress the paint a little after you are done and it’ll fit right in. *A note here: This piece had some missing pulls on the hardware, but we found them inside the drawer. If you find vintage/antique pieces without all of the hardware it may not be easy to replace them or find the right fit today. Hardware can be expensive – so, look at the hardware and know if you will be able to update/replace/fix it before purchasing. Sometimes we have to fill existing holes and drill new ones for new hardware because sizes are not always the same today as they may be once been. And, don’t assume you can find “one” pull to match the rest – this is probably NOT going to happen.
I have these moments sometimes when I walk into a thrift shop that my eye is immediately drawn right to once piece – this was the case with this “broken” antique wardrobe. My eye went right to it and then my feet followed. I couldn’t believe the cheap price on it. I guess because it was missing a top and the drawers it was almost given away, but standing there in front of it I saw it’s future. I knew what it was going to be – and, not only did I know what it was going to be, but I also knew it was going to be mine and that I wouldn’t be able to sell this piece.
After my husband made a top for it and fixed the bottom drawer, I did a very light coat of off white paint to the outside to brighten it up, but left the inside original and we added new bottom pulls. We also added an old salvaged piece of wood to the back with a few more hooks. This piece is one of my favorite all-time pieces that we have ever done and it sits in my foyer now.
Now a few quick pieces:
This park bench we won at an auction. It needed deeply cleaned and I sanded the slats and restained in an outdoor furniture stain.
This old table lamp became updated and new again. I removed the table portion and added an Edison light bulb. Now, it’s sleek and modern.
This big, chunky solid wood chair made me think of a throne! It was much larger than what the picture makes it out to be, but I wanted to make this piece magnificent! The houndstooth cushions were original to the piece and I was lucky that when washed they came out clean and beautiful! They had been dingy before. We replaced all the foam inside – tip on this – if using a place like Joanne’s for your replacement foam USE YOUR COUPON. Foam can be expensive, but Joanne’s always had 40-50% off coupons or wait until they have foam/cushion 40% off sales. To match the cushions, I chose to paint this mammoth chair in black and really shined it up after with wax.
Now, for this piece below: it grabbed me and told me what to do with it! I know that sounds weird, but sometimes when I see a piece, I have this image pop into my head immediately of what it will be. That was the case with this one. I knew that this piece was going to be a baby wardrobe/closet. Well, I knew that is what I was making it to be, but it ended up being sold to a teenage girl. Either way, it may be the one piece that I have done that was so stunning, that after it was finished I moved it into my bedroom to look at it every morning. Haha! Actually, it was so large that when we finished it my bedroom was the only room that it would fit in until we found a buyer, but this Hello Sunshine light yellow paint that I used was truly magical. Someone commented that it reminded them of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. *a note on this piece: The hinges were painted in a caramel brown color and beautiful. They were in great shape and didn’t need anything done to them so I ended up taking one up to the Home Depot and having the color match the hinge to a sample of paint and that is what I made my glaze from to do some shading to merge the yellow and the hinge color. We also took off the flimsy media console backing and put on a sheet of plywood to make this a real cabinet.
Just a little before and after on this kiddie desk.
And a little before and after on this media cabinet. It really just needed a new back and to be brightened up.
This little old desk got a huge “mermaid” makeover after the holes were patched. This was an odd piece for us – it appeared that someone had taken these drawers from an old desk/vanity and then rebuilt a desk to accommodate them because they didn’t entire “match.” And when I thrift a piece for just a handful of bucks that needs a lot of work, I am never afraid to play with color on it. Pieces like this that aren’t heirlooms or statement pieces are the perfect canvas to really experiment.
….and another cheap desk find that I played with the color….this was needed all new knobs.
This dresser below is common of what I typically find for chest of drawers/tall dressers. Dark brown, dirty and usually having at least one sticker attached. No worries – remember the steps:
- Remove the hardware! Do this. Don’t skip. I usually soak in a dish of warm, soapy water and scrub with an old toothbrush and then let dry. Sometimes you can use a brass cleaning type product to shine up hardware and use again without doing much else to it.
- Lightly sand the piece – since I was painting this anyway, I just sanded off all these stickers.
- Clean! Clean well. I use a rag/toothbrush and vinegar. And don’t forget to take out the drawers and clean underneath and in back of drawers- there are usually so many cobwebs and bugs under and you don’t want those in your house!
- Let dry and inspect.
Here is a little sofa table that was in our own home for many years (I replaced it with that beautiful old wardrobe cabinet that I posted about early – this is my foyer) It needed a makeover. After sanding the top and staining, I just chalk painted a flat black and we replaced the hardware. ***this is one of those type pieces that you MUST lightly sand FIRST. You can see that there is a “sheen” to this piece. It was about 10 years old in this photo and still had a very good protective, poly type layer. This layer must be knocked down for your paint to properly stick. You can skip this step if you are going to prime first. After you stain any type of table surface that will be used to “hold” things, its very important that you use some poly on it after.
After staining, wait about one day at least. I use polyurethane over stain and polycrylic- or a water based poly over paint. If you use polyurethane over paint it will yellow. Do not do this. Use a water based poly. I have been using on lately by Minwax that is “satin” You need to do at least two coats and for a dining room type table, I suggest 3-4. After applying the first coat and letting dry – at least 3-4 hours – lightly, lightly sand in the direction of the grain and then apply another coat. Before you apply the second coat rub your hand over the surface to make sure it is smooth and use a tack cloth to pick up dust from the sanding. I use foam brushes for this. It only needs a light coat. Don’t gob on your poly or do too thick a layer.
Another quick before and after (I usually work in the driveway)
This handmade kids chair! I fell in love! I fell in love with the idea of it anyway. Not so much the “wood burned” look. It turned out quite adorable after.
This hutch/china cabinet was a piece that I purchased and could not wait to get my hands all over it! It just needed a facelift. We replaced the back piece and I stained it blue. The hardware all got replaced and I stained the top of the cabinet part gray.
This fresh table needed very little work. After I sanded the top smooth I stained natural and I painted the bottom in my leftover paint from the hutch/cabinet above.
And one more table that I did in all gray with gray paint and gray stain. I used a high gloss poly on this one.
And there you have it! I hope I have encouraged you to maybe freshen up some of your own furniture or check out a thrift store the next time you need a piece of furniture and don’t want to spend an arm and a leg. Refinishing furniture is an addiction though – but, so much fun and rewarding. <3
