Do-it-yourself furniture restoration: restoration of wood, polishing, veneer

Has old furniture lost its former luster? I’m tired, but it’s a pity to throw it away? All this is fixable: you can improve the appearance so that no one will think that the furniture is many years old. Do-it-yourself furniture restoration is hard work. But you don’t have to do anything super complicated. Some methods are so simple that everyone can do it (we are not talking about antiques, of course).

Restoration of wooden surfaces

No matter how carefully the furniture is handled, scuffs, scratches, stains still occur. They are easy to eliminate. The main thing is to know how and why.

1. If the wood surface has just lost its luster, look for a wood care product that contains orange oil. Take a clean sponge, moisten it slightly and heat it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds. splashing means from a spray bottle, then wipe with a hot sponge (hands should be in rubber gloves coated inside). 
   

2. If there are scuffs, stains on the tree, you can try to cope with them by rubbing with a banana skin. Helps with minor injuries.
3. More serious stains require serious action. These are retouching markers (available in stores selling furniture fittings), denatured alcohol and wax. First, clean the surface (dish detergent diluted in water is the best solution). We wipe the wood that has dried up after cleansing with alcohol: three brightened places are well moistened with a swab. In most cases, the color is restored. In deep scratches, alcohol does not restore color, they are painted over with a marker of a suitable color. To add shine, the surface is covered with wax from above and polished with a soft cloth.
   

4. If you need to even out small irregularities, you can use a nail file. With scrupulous work, it is easier to wield with it than with sandpaper.
5. If the wood is locally swollen from moisture: a leaking vessel is placed, you can quickly get rid of the defect and neutralize its consequences by mixing salt and olive oil. The gruel is applied to the damage and rubbed in a circular motion. Leave for 20-30 minutes. Salt will draw out the water, and olive oil will restore elasticity to the fibers.
6. If there are chips, you can not do without putty. Suitable for both special for wood and automotive. The best way is to buy a light one and add color to it as needed. The chip is smeared over, a little putty is smeared on the adjacent surface. After drying, everything is well leveled with fine-grained sandpaper.

You may be interested to read what shelves are on the wall (with drawings). 

Restoring the polish

Restoring a layer of varnish is a difficult task. Any restoration of furniture begins with cleaning and degreasing and repairing the varnish coating too. We use dish detergent diluted in water: safe and reliable. After drying, we proceed to update the polishing.

• On dark furniture, a scratch can be painted over with iodine, achieving the desired color in a number of layers or diluting it with water. If you have furniture markers, you can use them.
• Deep scratches that have turned white cannot be painted over. There are other methods:
  • Make a mastic with 4 parts melted wax and 3 parts turpentine. This paste is applied to the polish and rubbed with a soft cloth.
  • If you have shoe polish in a suitable color, you can cover it with it, and then polish everything with a cloth.
    

• Stains of unknown or known origin can be removed with clean gasoline. A soft cloth is moistened and rubbed. For particularly difficult cases, multiple treatments may be required, but sooner or later any stains are removed. Then everything is polished to a shine with a soft rag. A mixture of linseed oil and denatured alcohol will help restore it.
• If the spots remain from hot – white circles from cups or other objects, they are wiped with alcohol. You can also repeat several times. After the stain has disappeared, the surface is renewed with a mixture of linseed oil and denatured alcohol.
• Particularly deep stains from hot are easier to remove with a mixture of drying oil and alcohol. The stain is smeared with this composition until it disappears completely. Then wipe with alcohol and polish with a rag.

You can simply refresh the faded polish on the furniture with mixtures prepared by yourself:

1. Two parts of linseed oil and turpentine and a part of vinegar. Everything is mixed, applied with a swab, wait until it is absorbed and polished.
2. Mix oil and beer in equal parts and wipe the furniture with this composition. Rub after soaking.
3. A more shiny surface will be if the beer is boiled with a piece of wax, cooled and applied slightly warm to the furniture. When the composition is absorbed, the surface is rubbed to a shine.

More recipes in the video.

How to remove polish from furniture

Quite often you have to remove the polishing: this is not the most fashionable finish. Modern furniture is most often painted with opaque or tinted paints, and the surface is matte. In any case, you need to remove the polish. There are several ways. Since varnishes are different in composition, you have to select empirically. But one of the methods should work.

1. You can remove the old polish from the furniture mechanically. If there is a grinder, the process will go faster, if not, take sandpaper with a large grain and peel off the varnish layer until wood appears. Then take a fine grain and grind to a flat surface. Mechanical removal does not always work. Sometimes even a grinder does not work: the polish does not peel off, but begins to melt and stink. Then they change tactics.
2. You will need a piece of old glass. Put on gloves and break it into several fragments. With the sharp edges that have formed, brush off the coating to the wood. If there are chamfers and recesses, it is convenient to scrape them with sharp edges. After the main layer of polishing is removed, everything is brought to a smooth state with fine-grained sandpaper.
   

3. If working with glass does not appeal to you, chemical methods remain. There are ready-made polish removers. You can work with them either in the open air or in a draft: the fumes are harmful. How to remove polish – you need to read on the package. The means are different and the duration and order of processing may vary.

How to paint polished furniture

If the old furniture was being prepared for painting, it must be cleaned of dust, wiped with a damp cloth and allowed to dry. After leveling everything with putty, smooth out all the bumps, wait until it dries. Take sandpaper and sand again, first with medium, then with fine grain. Next, apply a layer of primer and wait for it to dry.

The primer is bought for the paint that is going to be used, or the paint can be diluted with a compatible solvent and covered instead of primer. After drying, you can paint.

You can paint with a roller or brush. Usually several coats are needed: do not try to apply a lot of paint at once, as streaks may appear. It is better to apply several thin layers. So the surface will be smooth and uniform. Another trick: for uniform coloring, layers are applied in different directions – along, then across. This also applies to the application of varnish.

Some varnishes are easier to work with when they are warm. They are slightly heated and then applied with a spray gun or brush. When warming up, you need to be careful: vapors can flare up.

In order of staining: first, the inner surfaces, edges and joints are painted, then they move on to the outer ones. With this sequence, there is less chance of getting dirty or touching the already painted surface, ruining it.

If the varnish coating is even, without defects, and it needs to be painted over, you can do without removing this layer. There are special primers for difficult surfaces. Coat the surface with them, and paint after drying. They have components that penetrate even the varnish layer. Therefore, the paint will be applied well and hold on for a long time. But such soils have a minus: they are expensive. But they do save a lot of time.

Some secrets of coloring wood (including brushing and coloring in two colors) are in the article “How to paint a lining”. See the video for a few secrets of even application of acrylic paint.

If the restoration did not bring the expected result, maybe you need to change the appearance? How to remake furniture in a new way is described here.

How to restore veneer

Veneered furniture requires a special approach. The means are basically the same, the methods are different. For example, if after hitting the veneer is swollen, draw PVA glue into a disposable syringe, pierce the bubble, and inject glue into the cavity. Lay a piece of dense fabric on top and put a load. If the surface is uneven (convex or concave), a bag of dense fabric with heated sand is used as a load.

If the veneer is glued to alcohol glue, you can return the swollen part to its place by ironing it through a rag with a hot iron. But do not overheat the iron: the veneer can stretch. The degree of heating is medium.

If ironing through a dry cloth does not help, try again with a damp cloth (wet and wring it out well). There is a chance that the wood will swell and become more elastic. To securely fix the swelling, you can introduce PVA there, and then heat it with an iron.

If the swelling is cracked, you can also try to seal it with heating (through a rag). If it does not work, tear off the exfoliated piece. You don’t cut it off, but break it off: on the veneer, the fractures after restoration are less noticeable than the cuts. Therefore, you break off the lagging piece. The old glue is removed from the place of damage and a piece of veneer (with sandpaper or nail files – depending on the size). Further, the repair of veneer on furniture is standard: they smeared it with PVA glue, laid it, aligning the fault lines, laid a thick fabric on top and put the load to dry.

Scratches and traces of restoration on veneer are removed in the same way as on wood: they are painted over with a furniture marker of a suitable shade. If the scratch is deep, a little molten wax for furniture restoration is applied to it (with a spatula). After drying, the wax is rubbed, if necessary, fine-grained sandpaper is used, but after such processing, the restored piece is covered with a layer of varnish.

Do-it-yourself furniture restoration requires patience and accuracy. We have to act gradually and methodically: smeared, waiting for drying, leveled, smeared again, etc. Sometimes you have to try several methods: the damage is different, as are the materials used in the manufacture (glue, varnishes, etc.). But as a result, the furniture will look much better.