Good As New – Tips on Revamping and Fixing Up Your Old Furnishings
Odds are that you’ve got a lot of old furniture around the house. You might just want to get rid of it, if for nothing else, just to save the space. While reducing clutter in your home is never a bad idea, and keeping your older furniture in mint conditioncan be difficult, don’t be too quick to throw away those unique pieces that aren’t being used. There are plenty of ways that you can refinish or “revamp” your furniture and put it to good use, especially if you have something older that just needs a new style or look. There is a bit of a process involved, and how you proceed will depend on several things. The first decision you have to make is what pieces of furniture you want to put the work into.
What to Keep?
In order to decide what to keep, you need to assess your home and figure out what you have space for and where you want to add another piece of furniture. Here’s the process:
If furniture is stored
Do a walkthrough of each room and decide where you have the space for extra furniture. Choose a piece of furniture from storage that would fit in those places or be useful in the room with the extra space.
If furniture is in use
Simply identify the pieces that you feel don’t quite fit in terms of style, then set them aside as your project pieces. Once you’ve chosen the furniture you want to work on, there are several different things you can do to create the 2.0, new and improved versions. A lot of what you do will depend on what kind of furniture you’re dealing with, but more often than not, you’ll be working with wood of some kind. Here are some of the basic things you can do that will apply to most pieces of old wooden furniture and can be implemented in a variety of different ways:
Sanding
Sanding is something you’ll have to get used to if you want to make a habit out of sprucing up old furniture is using a sander. An electric sander would be highly recommended, considering the amount of time it takes to properly sand something down by hand. You can get your hands on a mid-grade sander for around the $50 or $60 mark, which is a worthwhile investment if you plan on using it a lot. Sanding down a piece of furniture makes painting it much easier and will ensure that the paint goes on smoothly and properly. Painting over furniture with a finish or a glossy coat of paint isn’t going to look as nice as it would if you have a blank canvas to work with. Sanding basically allows you to start fresh with an old piece of furniture.
Spray Paint
Once you’ve got your furniture sanded, spray paint is one of your best tools available when it comes to giving it second life. The nice thing about spray paint is that it’s easy to use and comes in all kinds of different finishes, aside from just different colors. Whatever you plan to do with an old piece of furniture, the odds are pretty good that spray paint can help you get there.
Ignore the Tradition of the Piece
A lot of what makes an old piece of furniture interesting is that it can serve a different purpose somewhere else. For example, one might take an old thin crate and use it to hold a DVD collection, or perhaps an old chair could be spray painted and used to house a flower pot. That’s a big part of the trend of re-using older furniture, which is being powered in large part by the influence of Pinterest contributions. It’s all about being creative and working with what you have, so don’t be afraid to do some sanding, some painting and then try and place the piece in a spot where it might not be conventionally used.
Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer from Los Angeles who covers everything from health, marketing, travel and design. She is always looking for ways to incorporate eco-friendly practices into her everyday life such as using gift bags and other household items for crafts with her three kids.
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