Have you ever had a piece of furniture that just sits in the corner of the room looking horrible?
That functional yet downright embarrassing desk or that lumpy and boring chair? Alternatively, you might have bought a tatty dresser with potential on eBay, or spotted a bargain being chucked out with the bins. After all, we are in a recession – and we are meant to be being thrifty.
If you do have one of those items, maybe you should think about doing it up. It doesn’t have to be challenging or revolutionary, but just a neat sprucing that means you don’t have to shuffle people past it whilst pointing at something in the other direction.
My personal challenge was the 1930s desk I snagged on eBay for £15. It was a lovely unique item, but in a funny rough wood that looked pretty bad, as well as managing to neatly clash with every other belonging in the room. Impressive, I know.
So how can you renovate a desk? The following is a little tutorial for painting and decorating, but pretty much the same process can be done if you want to create glistening polished wooden beasts instead of quaint cute ones. The first steps are the boring ones...
First Steps
1. Get yourself a piece of furniture. Look for good shapes and solid build – you can do the decorative bits yourself.
2. Sand it down with a decent coarse sandpaper.
3. Apply your primer. If you are feeling lazy, don’t apply it, but you will have to do more top coats to cover it!
4. Next, apply your main paint (go for matte wood paint, gloss is sticky). This is the most important colour to coordinate with your room – go for black if you feel daring or, like me, opt for a nice generic white/cream shade.
5. Paint, paint and paint some more – this includes inside the cupboards so they don’t look silly when opened, as well as the visible parts of drawers. Putting in the effort here makes it seem better put together.
Now you can go ahead and decorate your remarkably monotone new piece of furniture. Here are some ideas to pick and choose from as inspiration for your virgin renovation!
Trim
This is what I chose to do with my square, art deco 30’s desk. Using really cheap sellotape that didn’t actually stick (I knew it would be useful for something one day!!), I stencilled out an art deco trim, that I painted with a contrasting colour. You could do similar with stencils, which you can make or buy.
Lining
I haven’t got his far yet – my desk has draws etc lined in plastic tortoiseshell that is old and dying – this required possibly a million hours of nail removing to get the darn stuff out! I will be lining it either in vintage fabric or possibly cheaper silver Christmas wrapping paper. To do this I make a mixture from glue and water, and essentially paint the fabric or paper very gently and neatly into the draw – I will use a Stanley knife to trim the edges neat afterwards. Let one thin glue layer dry, and repeat until hard (drying each time in-between).
Finally! Finishing Touches
Pretty handles are vital, whether you buy at an auction, steal some off your parent’s drawers (be subtle!) or head to a DIY shop. Simply unscrew the current ones and use a bit of elbow grease and maybe a rawlplug if the desk is old and flaky.
The result? Theoretically something wonderful and a million times better than the original. It may have some wobbly lines or drips of paint – but if you learn to love those little flaws you will realise you have created something unique and entirely yours! In fact, you are nearly a furniture restorer – so be proud!