My Furniture Restoration Effort.
Our bedroom suite is 35 years old and was in need of some repairs and restoration as the finish had become dull and lifeless.
It is made of teak and teak veneer and originally consisted of 2 two drawer bedside units and bed head, a corner dirty clothes unit and two double drawer units, with one of them having a large mirror attached to make it a dressing table.
The suite did not fit centrally in the room so during the recent renovations I moved a window from the back wall to the side wall making that a full window wall. I built another corner unit and two open shelf units so that the bed could be centered in the room. I also put in a three way light switch system, one at the door and one on either side of the bed thus removing the obligatory bed side lamps.
The new corner unit and shelf units were made of a sheet of 11mm ply and stained and waxed to roughly match the existing furniture. After removing the mirror, which now hangs at a better height on the wall, all units were bolted together to form one complete and solid unit.
Having learned french polishing I felt that restoring this suite should be my first major restoration project. The restoration of the units was done in sections and consisted of removing the lacquer with paint stripper and hand scraping and sanding to # 320.
The units were then stained and french polished. The home made units were more difficult to match in colour to the original units as they are different materials but after staining with 4 coats and polishing with 9 coats of polish it is a close enough match.
The rocker chair is 85 years old and is without any scratches or sign of wear. As it has only ever been waxed I cleaned and rewaxed it to bring up a deep soft shine.
The only thing still to be done is the mirror frame and polishing a tissue box cover and a jewellery box I am restoring to complement and finish it.
Restoring the furniture has given it a new lease of life, as the new finish is better then when originally purchased and more importantly allowed me to build my finishing shed without any objections.
Some photos are attached, no 1 is the right hand side, no 2 the left side, no 3 the bed, no 4 the mirror still to be done – note the dull finish and no 5 the chair.
Peter,
