Looking for furniture refinishing tips and tricks? Rather than buying new, restoring old wooden furniture is one of the best ways to bring your favourite pieces to life. Often, old furniture is neglected which results into build-up of dirt and grime. If left uncared for, this will eventually lead to faded colours and shine. Consequently, your favourite wooden furniture becomes dull in appearance. Most people that have antique furniture in their homes wonder how to restore these beautiful pieces to life. Whether is mahogany or other types of wood that you’re looking at refinishing, the same steps apply. Let’s take a look to see what it takes to refinish old furniture.
While it’s simple and somewhat easy to restore old wood furniture on a DIY basis, we suggest that it’s best to have the right products on-hand for the restoration project. One you’re done, you can also visit our Cleaning and How-to Tips and Hacks for wood furniture.
How to refinish wood furniture
1. Wooden Furniture Stripping
Stripping your furniture is a messy task. If possible, you may want to work outside, in a garage or a basement. If this is not an option, have a large sheet to cover and protect your floors. Cover any nearby furniture also. Ensure that proper ventilation is in place. Now, apply a generous amount of furniture stripper with an older brush.
Tip: if you’re only looking at refinishing a certain area of the furniture, make sure you cover the rest up with either a plastic sheet or cloth to prevent damaging to other areas that do not need restoring.
2. Allow Time
Once you applied the stripper, allow the old varnish and polish (the overall finish) to dissolve. This can take anywhere from 10 minutes up to 30 minutes. It all depends on the thickness and quality of the finish. If the stripper hasn’t done the job yet, re-apply generously again and wait for another 15 minutes. Eventually the layers will be removed and you’ll be ready to go to the next step of your furniture refinishing project.
3. Neutralize The Chemical Wood Stripper
The next step is to neutralize the chemical stripper with a wax or a polish removal, following the grain of the wood. A critical thing to remember here is that, you’ll need to carefully read the chemical stripper label as different stripper require different neutralizers.
Tip: be careful to read the label as different wood furniture strippers require different neutralizers. If this fails, the stripper will continue to dissolve the finish and cause damage.
4. Clean Up The Wooden Surface
After you have gone through steps 1-3, now it’s time to clean up the surface. Use cotton rags then leave the furniture for one day. If you want to clean other parts of the wooden furniture, you can clean these with coarse cloth or fine sandpaper, working in the areas that you want. Once finished, you can wipe these areas down with a cloth, keeping it nice and clean.
5. Sanding The Furniture
After a day or so passes, you can return to restore the wooden furniture piece. For this step, we need fine sandpaper to remove and smooth any wood fibres exposed during the stripping process. Work with the grain, not against it for best results. You can wipe the area with a cotton rag again so that all surface is clean.
6. Hacks for Bleached Wood Areas
If your favourite old wooden furniture piece was in direct sunlight, this may have caused discolouration. If this is the case, use a wood dye of your choice to bring a unified colour. You can use a brush. Apply generously and allow the stain to penetrate for a while. Wipe away any excess. Ensure an even spread of the stain.
7. Apply Finishing Oil
Once your wood furniture is dry, apply a coat of finishing oil. You can use a brush here. Allow the oil to penetrate for 15 minutes. Wipe away any excess before the surface gets to sticky from the oil. Once all done, wait for 5 to 7 hours. After the oil is dry, use steel wool to clean up gently before applying a second coat. You can repeat the steps here again. The more coats, the better the wood sheen and finish, thereby increasing the furniture’s durability.
8. Final Step: Furniture Wax
This is the final step for your furniture refinishing project. You should consider applying a good quality furniture wax to the areas that you’ve restored.
Tip: use a lint-free cloth to avoid getting any small cloth pieces into the wax and therefore onto the furniture
Bonus: Home Remedies for Furniture Refinishing
If you don’t have a budget for the products needed to refinish your furniture, you can do yourself a favour by removing surface dirt and old wax by making your own home remedy.
1. For Restoring Wood Furniture Colour Naturally
Use Coconut Oil. This not only “rehydrates” your old wooden furniture, it also brings in more colour leave it looking for healthier and natural.
2. For Staining Wood Furniture Darker
If you’re looking at staining wood furniture darker naturally, use vinegar. For darker looking wood, use balsamic vinegar.
3. Repair Scratches In Wood Furniture Naturally
You can mix 3/4 of oil and 1/4 of vinegar. White vinegar will do as well as using canola oil.
For more details on Cleaning Wood Furniture Naturally, Easy and Simple Steps, see our home remedies outlined.
Furniture refinishing doesn’t have to be a large and scary project. We outlined the steps above for an easy DIY project. You don’t need a lot of money to get your old wooden furniture piece looking great again.
Depending on your refinishing needs, you can also use our home remedies for cleaning wood naturally. If you have any suggestions from past refurnishing project, please share with us in the comments.