Along with building some furniture over quarantine, I also gained a new hobby in restoring and refinishing some furniture. It's been a great learning experience and I'm looking forward to continuing to build my skills. I love being able to look at a piece of furniture that needs new life and basically design something new from the old bones (or, if it's a beautiful mid century piece, just bring back it's beauty).
This poor credenza was in desperate need of some love when I found it at the thrift store. It's a beautiful, authentic mid century piece that absolutely deserved to be brought back to it's former glory. Unfortunately, the original knobs were long gone, so after sanding and refinishing the piece I tried a few different options to replace them, landing on slightly oversized brass knobs that nod to the original handles, but match my current style and use of brass tones in my decor.
I fell in love with this piece at the thrift store with the original intention to fix it up and sell it, but I loved it too much and ended up using it as a coffee bar. It's an authentic mid century piece ("Roomates" Cabinet by Baumritter), but it was treated horribly. The sides were incredibly scratched up, it didn't have original knobs or legs, there was writing all over the inside of the drawer, stains on the cane, it was a mess. I was able to sand it all the way back to the original wood, replace broken hinges and magnets, attach new legs, restain, and seal it. I had never refinished a piece of furniture so it was certainly a learning experience, and a bit of a challenge in my small space, but I'm so happy to give such a nice old piece of a furniture a new life.
This is another piece of furniture I bought to fix and sell. I saw it at the thrift store and new it had potential. I'm pretty sure at one point it was a really pretty wood piece of furniture, but someone took a can of spray paint to it, and then water damaged a lot of the wood veneer beyond repair. I scraped off the top layer of wood veneer that had bubbled up and sanded down the wood underneath. It was pretty wood, but due to water staining I didn't think it made sense to try to stain it. Once it was all stripped off, I sanded it down and filled any dents in the wood. To finish it off I painted it a nice sage green. The person who bought it was so excited to add it to their home, and that's my favorite part of the process!
This was my first attempt at upholstery, and was certainly a learning process. Although overall I think it turned out well, and is certainly much comfier than the existing cushions which had literally turned to dust inside the fabric, I think upholstery is a profession for a reason and I definitely have a lot to learn still.
This coffee table needed to be brought into the future if it had any chance of finding a new home. It was old, worn, and clunky. I decided to try my best to bring it up to today's trendy mid century inspired style by removing the entire bottom half of the table, giving it a fresh paint job, and replacing the legs with something lighter and more modern.
This might be the most dramatic flip I've done. From an old, worn, Mexican pine piece to a sleek, modern cabinet. This project took some elbow grease, I completely removed the excessive trim on the top and bottom, removed all the hardware, and refinished it with a black paint and new handles to update it to a more modern style.
I had high hopes of being able to restore the original wood on this antique sewing table, but unfortunately it had deep water stains and damage that was unsalvageable. So, instead I freshened it up with a new coat of paint and unique handles to create a statement piece that I feel fits right in with the current trend of colorful boho maximalism.
