How to Restore Old Furniture

Step 1. Get handy. Remove any pieces that you don’t want to paint (like hinges, knobs, and paintings), and mask off things that won’t come off.

Step 2. Sand ‘er down. Sand the wood with 80-grit sandpaper by hand. Your material will be gone if you use an electric sander. We’re not trying to remove old paint and varnish anyway; we just want the next coat to stick to the stuff that’s already there. So rough that puppy up. The glossier the old paint, the more you want to make sure you rough up every edge.

Step 3. Hose it down. Then take a wet cloth and wipe it down really well. If you skip this step or don’t do a thorough job, I’m afraid to report that you’ll get nasty little lumps in your fresh coat of paint. You’ll be starting all over.

Step 4. Apply paint. No, no, I didn’t forget about the wood putty. I have found that it’s easier to see where the putty needs to go after you have your first coat of paint down. It’s an accurate representation of how your finished piece is going to look, so you can decide which gashes and seams should be filled. Also, if you’ve done your sanding homework, you don’t need a coat of primer. The glossier the paint, the easier it is to clean down the road, too. We tend to pick latex paint for things like door frames and oil-based paint for furniture. These frames have three coats of high gloss, white oil-based paint.

Step 5. Fill ‘er up. When the paint dries, take your wood putty and begin filling holes. Experiment with the tools that work best for you. My favorites are 1 inch scrapers, my fingertips, and screwdrivers because they’re so small. Try to get the putty level with the wood, which may take multiple coats, especially when you’re filling things like nail holes. It takes a bit of practice, though there’s one thing I know for sure: never use any old putty, joint compound, plaster, or whatever you’ve got in the house. You have to use wood putty because it is specifically made to match the movability of wood. Use anything else and you’ll be repeating this project again in a couple of years, I am very sad to say.

Step 6. Sand ‘er down again. Sand your putty holes so that they’re smooth. You probably shouldn’t use 80-grit sandpaper. Reach for something finer like 120 or even 240-grit. Easy peasy so far, right?

Step 7. Get beautiful. Apply second coat of paint to get the desired look. White paints may even need a third. (You may want to do a second little putty/sand job between coats for a smoother surface.)

Step 8. Strut your stuff. Display that lovely restored piece and invite people over to see it at a little party.

So go ahead and make something ehh into something amazing. Don’t forget to let me know about any of your artsy creations, either. I love restorations, and there are only so many gashes that I can fill in my own little place.

Broyhill taking integrated approach to product display

HIGH POINT — Broyhill says its showroom designers are taking a different approach at next week's High Point Market, displaying furniture the way consumers actually like to buy it - as an integrated group with the case goods and upholstery designed to go together.

Broyhill’s new Urban Solutions collection includes this rectangular cocktail table with a metal frame and casters for easy mobility. The top surface features a glass treatment that adds a contemporary flair.
Aiming to reach younger Gen-X and Gen-Y consumers, the company also has built an 850-square-foot apartment inside its 80,000-square-foot showroom here. Called Studio US, the apartment showcases the company's new contemporary collection, Urban Solutions.

"Our move to lifestyle settings throughout the showroom is a huge undertaking that is all about helping our dealers better visualize the lifestyle and the inspiration behind the design," said Broyhill President Jeff Cook. "We are no longer segregating our design teams or our showroom display into isolated product categories as if the two do not relate to one another."

The new display approach stems from research the company commissioned earlier this year from the firm BASES. It is the first of several research initiatives Broyhill says it is using to help it link product design to consumer insights, preferences and trends.

"Instead of designing from the antiquated viewpoint of traditional, transitional, contemporary and so on, we are taking a fresh look at the buying trends by lifestyle instead of category to bridge the gap between design, showroom display and the marketplace," said Cook. "The showroom will be totally revamped, mixing case goods with upholstery, and selecting accessories, decor and messaging that is consistent with the lifestyles identified by our BASES research. Say goodbye to showing product by price, product category and style."

In all, Broyhill is showing seven settings here that incorporate its introductions of five new whole home groups, four casual dining groups with a new chair program, two bedrooms, several expanding dining room collections, six occasional groups, 18 upholstery silhouettes, three youth collections and five new frames for the Custom Colors Leather program.

With Urban Solutions in the Studio US space, the company said the product was designed by women and has functional features in a smaller scale that fit the typical urban apartment or condo.

"We have listened to our dealers and they have asked us to partner with them to reach out to these generations as they start buying their first real furniture. And that is precisely what we have done," Cook says. "They want their apartment to look and function like normal size, but in 600 to 800 square feet they can't accommodate standard-size furniture."

Studio US was designed with retail store display in mind, according to Broyhill. Constructed of inexpensive glass walls, the space includes a kitchen, bath, bedroom and open dining and living space. Details will be shared with retailers free of charge, including construction blueprints, product floor plans, paint colors and information on fixtures.

"Glass creates excitement by giving the attitude of space without blocking the view," said Michael Foster, Broyhill vice president merchandising - case goods. "We are setting the tone for how product should be presented to consumers living in today's average-size condo or apartment. It is our truest expression of a whole home collection."

French Polish Old Furniture

Use high quality paint stripper which contain around 1000g per litre of methylene chloride and are thick and gluggy. Good quality paint stripper is about $40 per gallon/ 4 litres STEPS: 1. Remove metal components from furniture (eg hinges). Number the hinges to ensure replacement in same spot as old furniture is not perfect and parts may not be interchangeable. Scratch numbers on hinge jambs on cup'd as texta is removed by stripper. 2. Apply very thick coat of stripper with brush and allow to stand 10-15 mins to soften paint/varnish. Large pieces might be recoated after 5 mins to replenish and keep moist the stripper. Do not apply in sunlight as stripper dries too quickly. Seal lid of stripper as soon as possible else active component evaporates. 3. Materials that can not be stripped or removed at all include 2 pack materials and Estapol products. Some need special strippers. Shellac is easily stripped using stripper; methylated spirit is possible but gluggy. 4. Scrape off stripper with a steel scraping hook (pref sharp pointed convex triangle) making sure to get into all crevices (eg using a toothbrush or laundry brush). 5. Solid wood items can be washed off with water to neutralise stripper. Veneer products, plywood, custom wood must not be washed with water as it will break down the PVA adhesive used in bonding the material. Wash these items with methylated spirits. 6. Apply a further light coat of stripper and repeat scraping and washing process. Repeated heavy coats if item has many layers of paint. 7. Final neutralising should be with Grade 3 steel wool or coarse scotchbrite pad with plenty of scrubbing in water or pref meth spirits. 8. Summary: 2 coats separated by 5 mins; scrape off, third coat and scrape off and neutralise by scrubbing with steel wool or scotch brite in water then metho. 2. SANDING AND REPAIRS NOTES: Water based fillers unsuitable for shellac finish. Need oiled based eg Wattyl "Woodstop". Get a can of light coloured one (eg beech, oak, Huon Pine) and a dark one (eg blackwood, cedar, walnut) to suit any application. Oil based putty used to fill small holes only as large holes take too long to dry and filler also shrinks and flakes away from edges of hole. Allow to dry 1/2 hour then sand flat with 100 grade free-cut paper (white). Use 2 pack putty with a white hardener (not pink which bleeds through and is hard to cover) such as Plasti-bond for large holes or chunks. Dries in minutes and can be sanded flat. Later colour touch up with spirit dye after shellac applied. Overfill all holes slightly as putties all shrink on drying; sand back so only the holes show filler. Beeswax stick (eg maple is a good general colour) can be used for filling imperfections after shellac polish is applied. It is softened with a lighted match or cigarette lighter, rubbed on then sanded level. Do not sand out scratches in veneers else you will sand through the laminate. Fill them. STEPS: 1. Sand article down thoroughly with the grain with 100 grit free-cut paper (white), light sanding only for veneers. Use only a cork block on flat surfaces as you will generate dents. Hand sanding on curved pieces with sand paper folded in 3 and overlapping to prevent slipping of paper. Mask off areas from scratching where grains are perpendicular at joins. 2. Badly scored surfaces may be sanded with orbital sander with 100 grit to remove main scratches, then 80 grit by hand to remove orbital sander cross scratches, then 100 grit by hand to finish off. 3. Fill small holes and scratches with woodstop putty, dry 30 mins and sand flat with the grain. Fill large holes and chips with plasti-bond, dry a few minutes and sand flat. 4. Use spit on finger to contrast filler against wood and check filler sanded back to edge of holes. Spit test is essential as plastibond otherwise may not be visible in grain and will spoil final appearance. Keep sanding till only the hole contains filler. 5. "Ariss" off the sharp edges of furniture. ie round them off with light sanding, else stain will be rubbed off in the sanding between shellac coats. 3. STAINING AND WOODGRAIN FILLING NOTES: Oil based clear wiping stain is preferred to spirit based dye which can be mixed with shellac to darken colour of light timber at a later stage or even up timber with light and dark components. Oil based stain takes longer to dry and less chance of uneven stain marks from overlap of stain application. Oil based stains of 2 types, one is pigmented the other is clear wiping stain. The latter is recommended to preserve maximum visibility of grain and avoid cloudiness of finish. "Wattyl fade resisting stain" is preferred. Combinations of light oak, walnut and rosewood allow for almost any colour to be developed. All can be diluted with turps to lighten off the stain. It is best to use unmixed and undiluted stains on jobs which may need later touch up work else a colour matching problem will arise. Do a test strip on an unseen part of the job to get final colour. Note that orange shellac lightens the final colour by 5 shades or about 20%. The same stain differs in finish colour depending on the porosity and colour of the natural timber. Woodgrain filler is pigmented and fills the pores in the grain and gives evenness (eg in timber with patches of varying porosity), depth of colour and a full grained effect to the finish. Even though it looks dark, woodgrain filler adds very little colour to the finished job and you can use one colour for most stains. Woodgrain filling saves some 5 -6 coats of shellac to achieve the same finish and it is preferable to extra shellac coats, especially in our variable climate as shellac will crack if too thick. Woodgrain filler can be applied undiluted to flat large areas but must be diluted with 20% turps for turned pieces. It is simplest to use diluted filler for the whole job. It is essential to wipe on and wipe off the filler on the whole job very quickly else dried filler will give a cloudy final finish. Have plenty of clean rag available because the job will be ruined if you waste time running around to find new rag. Woodgrain filling is quite hard to do quickly and properly in hot weather. This is also another reason for using diluted filler. Note that Huon Pine should not be stained or filled -it has no open grain. Cedar and oak has to be filled, but oak is so open grained it will never be completely filled and applying too much shellac makes it look horrible. Blackwood and very dark timbers should not be stained else they get too dark. These can simply be woodgrain filled. You can get a neutral coloured woodgrain filler for unstained jobs but it has white pigments that remain if not perfectly wiped off. It is preferable to use a light pigmented filler on unstained jobs to avoid this problem. Walnut coloured woodgrain filler gives a nice natural colour and blends easily with various other woodstain colours. On natural timber it hardly pigments the timber and is therefore a useful general purpose colour to get. Note that in thinning woodfiller 20% you can use stain as the thinner in lieu of turps eg rosewood to kill the brown in a walnut coloured filler. Woodgrain filler can be used under any finish coat as long as it is compatible with the finish coat (eg a turps based varnish, lacquer) STEPS: 1. Apply Wattyl fade resisting stain liberally along the grain with a brush or singlet type cloth and take no more than 5 mins to stain up the whole job. Take care not to overlap staining from edge end grain with the adjacent flat areas. Best to do the flat surfaces first and then quickly do the edges taking care not to double stain adjacent flat areas. 2. Wipe off stain with a clean dry singlet cloth, wiping with the direction of the grain. Stain is to be wiped off briskly as soon as possible and certainly before stain starts to dry. Wipe off the areas first that were stained first. 3. After wiping off allow stain to dry 30 mins ( 45 mins in cold weather) before woodgrain filling which will take off about 5% of the stain depth unless stain is first dried overnight. 4. Apply Wattyl "895 One Pot Plastic Woodfiller" diluted with 20% turps with a rag quickly and liberally in a circular motion to the whole job. Ensure absolutely every part of the job is covered else patchiness will show up once shellac is applied. This is critical for dining table tops and you will not be able to see the missed bits until shellac is later applied when it is too late to rectify. Filler must not be allowed to dry before being wiped off else the lot needs to be removed with turps and the job restained and grain filled again. As with staining, overlapped coats of filler will show a later stained patchy finish. 5. Quickly wipe off filler in circular motion with a clean rag to about 90% removal then quickly follow up with a new rag wiping with the grain to get the last 5%. It is essential to wipe every scrap of filler off the job else it will mar the final finish with cloudiness. Use a 50mm brush with bristle cut to half length or a pencil sharpened piece of dowel to flick filler out of tight edges and wipe with clean rag to finish off. 4. APPLICATION OF SHELLAC Shellac comes in flake form and is from the Lac beetle of Africa and other warm climates. The beetle excrement is dried and crushed to flake form. Good shellac has a strong smell and is not lumpy. It is about $24/kg from Solver, Haymes or a heritage shop on Norwood Parade. Shellac is prepared for application by mixing with metho. Fill a jar to desired level with flakes. Add metho to just cover the flakes. Stir well, replace lid and leave 30 mins till dissolved. Shellac is applied with a brush or preferably a shellac mop. The latter are available from major paint stores in sizes 8 & 10 with other sizes only available in UK. Size 2 is a small touch up size while size 24, the largest, is about a 3 inch mop. The mop has advantages over ordinary brushes in that it holds much more shellac and needs replenishing less often which is useful for an even finish. Shellac dries touch dry in 10 mins but takes at least 48 hours to harden. It actually never totally dries out giving it flexibility with timber movement. However shellac is not durable. It whitens with water, alcohol and heat. It is a difficult technique to applying shellac to avoid sags and runs. It is better to apply 6 thin coats than 4 thick coats which run. STEPS: 1. In first applying shellac you apply four coats with 15-20 mins between each coat. After the second coat you sand the job to cut off the high grain, leaving shellac in the pores. 2. The best job has the fullest grain with the minimum shellac. With most timbers of medium grain openness, 4 coats should suffice. Don't sand after the first coat as most soaks in and you risk sanding off the colour. Don't sand with a cork block , use 320 grit freecut paper (white) or finer in 'A' weight which is thin flexible paper. Sand lightly with the grain. Can use OO or OOO steel wool on turned pieces but not on flat areas. 3. It will take a couple coats of shellac to get even coverage. Don't try to touch up and patch as you go. 4. Evenness is the key in shellac application, especially on large areas like table tops. You do long strips about 2" wide and progress from one side to the other. Brush on with the grain and keep the surface you are blending into wet. Do the edges of jobs first without slopping over onto the flat surfaces else they will later show areas of double coating. No pressure is needed in brushing on shellac. 5. Do not touch up or go back recoating areas that are starting to dry. 6. Do not apply shellac at temps over 30C else it blisters or when too cold else shellac whitens. OK if a heater is used in room. Beware flammability of shellac! 7. After 4 coats of shellac, sand with 320 grit to make flat so only the grain lines show. Sand without a cork block on flat areas and with OOO steel wool on turned pieces. Scuff only lightly by hand and avoid edges else colour will be taken off. Brush marks and runs of shellac are sanded out but by covering a wider area. You sand until the whole surface is dull except for the grain lines. The job is now ready for rubber application of shellac. 5. FINISHING OFF Finishing off comprises 4 processes, viz applying shellac with a "rubber", touch up and staining of fillers, "dulling off" and, finally, oiling. Shellac rubbing: A "rubber" is made up of cotton wadding or stocking rolled into a ball about the size of a fist and enclosed in T-shirt, pillowcase or sheet material. The ball is placed about 2/3 up a handkerchief sized piece of sheet which is folded over and the surplus twisted into a tail. Ends up smaller than a tennis ball. The bottom should be flattened (easier once wet with shellac). Put about 1" shellac in a 2 litre ice cream container and thoroughly wet the rubber all the way through. Twist tail up so it doesn't drag on the work and to remove excess shellac. Open grained timbers like oak could need 4 hours rubbing on a table top. Rubbing fills grain quicker in hot weather but blisters if too hot. 20C is an ideal temperature for rubbing. If it is too cold the surface will show a white haze. Rubbing with the grain is recommended until proficient when figure 8 or circular rubbing can be used. Never have shellac dripping from the rubber. Do not stop the rubber on the job. Steps: 1. Soak rubber in shellac and then quite tightly squeeze out by twisting the tail of the rubber until excess shellac is removed. If the rubber does not run over the job smoothly it is too wet and you must wring the rubber out more tightly and wait 5 minutes for the job to harden up before recommencing rubbing. 2. Working quickly so each stroke blends into the previous stroke before it dries, overlap strokes of rubber and wet surface enough to draw shellac into the grain. Give the edges a few rubs first taking care not to dribble shellac onto the top surface. Rubbing is concentrated on the broad highly visible surfaces. Don't exert pressure, use only weight of your arm. Reshape rubber to fit into tight corners etc. 3. Re-rub the job 6-7 times as in 2. It takes about 6 successive rubs to get up to "rubbing wetness" when the grain starts to be noticeably filled and a real sheen develops. 4. After 6 or 7 rubs wait about 30 mins for hardening of surface and scuff off lightly with 320 freecut paper without a cork block. 5. Touching up fillers: This is done using spirit dye eg "Wattle Fade Resisting Spray Stain" and is allowed to dry 10 mins before rubbing with shellac again. An alternative spirit stain is "Adeze FR Timber Stain" (eg Rosewood RW30) from Polyurethane Specialists Pty Ltd. Touch up using a small water colour brush. Build up the colour with light dabs allowing to dry a few seconds before dabbing again. Testing the colour on your skin is the truest way of matching. 6. "Dulling Off": This is carried out next, after leaving job overnight since last shellac rub, with OOO steel wool made into a flat pad and rubbed only along the direction of the grain. This produces a more subtle sheen that is more authentic than a full gloss finish. The key is to dull off the job totally evenly. Don't miss the edges. 7. Oiling: After dulling off apply Haymes Swedish Oil or similar liberally with a clean soft cloth, allow to soak in about 1 minute and wipe off excess thoroughly with a new dry soft absorbent rag. Re-oil after about 24 hours and then every 6 months to preserve finish. Allow job to dry and harden for two weeks before use - so the shellac hardens adequately. 6. REPAIRS, OTHER FINISHES ETC Repair scratches using steel wool along the grain, then re-oil. Note that Swedish oil can be removed with turps and re-rubbing with shellac carried out if desired. Other finishes: Shellac is not durable or practical for table tops in frequent use. Nitro cellulose lacquer sprayed on is more durable and quicker to finish. You can stain, wood grain fill, seal then gloss lacquer and rub and dull as for french polish.