Furniture restoration is a fun process but it feels exhausting sometimes going through a lot of work, but an outstanding finishing always brings a big smile to your face.
Furniture restoration can be defined as renovating any old furniture in a way that it looks and functions as close to the original as possible. Professional furniture restorers and hobbyists are very much accustomed to this kind of work.
Now the productivity would depend on a mix of clever people, efficient processes, and equipment. To make improvements in your work you need to adjust systems and review current practices, staff training, and also check on the equipment which is used to generate components and parts.
Table of Contents
Tips for restoring your old furniture
Introspect whether you can devote the time required
Start with the small furniture, for example, there might be a small table lying in your house, now restoring that would depend upon your restoration skills, the complexity of the task is also a major factor in deciding how much time you need to devote in restoring the table.
Deep carvings, slats, and spindles are not easy to do and they also take quite an amount of time to be done. Make sure you have enough time to devote to restoring the table.
Research Thoroughly and Inspect
Do proper research before beginning the work of restoration. Inspect the furniture and look for marks and labels that may indicate its origin. You can always consult a professional to know the value of the furniture if you suspect your furniture is an antique piece.
Keep records of the markings with you as removing antique finishing would lessen the value of your piece. Don’t feel disheartened if you are not a furniture expert, you can always learn skills, unscrew a screw partially, and look at the threads.
If they have inconsistent widths, then there are chances that the piece is pretty old. But approaching a professional antique appraiser is advisable.
Fix a Budget
Once you finalize the piece you want to restore, research properly about its worth in the market. Furniture restoring can be fun but if the piece isn’t valuable then you need to figure out the ways it can be used again.
Also, you have to think about questions that whether the restoration of the piece would cost more than buying a new one or is worth the time to restore it.
These are some basic questions that would invade your mind. Some furniture needs a few fixes to restore whereas others need a vigorous amount of work done which might cost you exceeding your budget.
Finalize The Look
It is very common for furniture restorers to get to know that the color of the furniture is not matching the rest of the furniture. Whereas before the restoration process started this unmatching appearance was not at all understood.
Here is a tip that would help you to know previously whether your restoration of an old piece would go with the rest of the furniture or not.
Find a spot that is not exposed to regular view such as the back of the drawer point. Give a thorough look to the unworn area that would give you an idea about the adjustment of the piece along with other furniture.
Clean Before Restoring
Before indulging in the process of restoration, give your furniture piece a thorough cleaning. As the piece has not been used for a long time there must be piles of dust covering the piece. Removing the pile can reveal the actual look of the piece, giving it a nice underneath.
Sometimes a thorough cleaning and buffing are what you need to restore a piece of furniture and give it a new look. For cleaning purposes, you can use some vegetable oil-based soap and warm water can be used which can be accompanied by scrubbing with a sponge.
A soft toothbrush can be used to clean the nooks and crannies. Make use of a wooden dowel rod and sharpen it like you sharpen a pencil, then use it further to get in between the tight spots. Then use its sharp end for digging out the grime. Read more about what you need to do before sealing your deck.
Closing Statement
Production pressure, tight deadlines, and customer expectations can lead to setting unrealistic goals. This workload further makes you compromise with the finishing of the product due to which quality of the product is also compromised.
Hence it is really important to set realistic goals to yield a piece of good furniture with proper restoration. You can easily restore a timber deck if you have good experience and knowledge about restoration.
You can also identify weaknesses in your current workflow which would increase the effectiveness of your work as you would be able to overcome them on time and finish your work thoroughly.