Old Buffet

Found this old buffet at a garage sale.  It has most of  it's parts but needs some love and replacement handles  It has old wooden casters.  Can't wait to get started

Very happy with how it has turned out.                                 Moved it into my mud room

Painting the frame and prepping the door shelves

 Started today by fixing the shelf that attaches to the inside of the bottom doors.

One of the rails was missing went through my scrap basket and found a strip of wood that was just a little thick ran it through the planer till it was the right thickness then cut it to size.   I didn't make it the same width as the top rail as it was only marginally thicker and thought it might be good to have a sturdier rail on the bottom.




Then I pained it to match the colour of the door frames.


Masked the panels of the cabinet then painted the frames with two coats of Behr Ultra 














The panels had 4 coats of Minwax Wipe-on-poly in gloss then I masked the panels then painted the frames of the doors with two coats of Behr Ultra.

 

Backing board replaced

I've replaced the plywood backing board with tongue and groove boards.  I stained them with the Minwax Golden Oak and add a coat of Minwax wipe-on-poly before attaching them to the back of the cabinet.

Painting the interior

Painting the interior with Behr Ultra In honied white and the frames of the upper doors in Behr Ultra in pale honey to match the enamel counter top.

Going to replace the board on the back with tongue and groove pine

Staining the panels

Stained the panels and drawer  with Minwax golden oak

Bakers cabinet

Worked on creating the frames for the replacement upper doors. I still need to router the edges and cut out the inset for the hinges.  

Bakers cabinet reno

 I have a day off from work and am playing with my projects while I have time waiting for my appointment this afternoon.

So this is my project that I am working on today.  Paid $30 for it at a garage sale. It is a mid-century bakers cabinet. The bottom half still has its original bakelite handles,  the cutting board is also original.  However the previous owners had wanted to use it as a microwave cabinet and had thrown out the original upper doors out, so I will need to make some new doors for that section.


The enamel pull out counter is original and I found it to be in fairly good condition once I cleaned it. It is a pale honey yellow colour which I quite like.  I want to partially stain and paint the cupboard but I haven't decided whether to paint the frame and stain the panels or vice versa.  I think it will depended on what I find when I finishing striping the piece.  The doors and drawer are done already and are a nice birch wood so I am hoping the cabinet will be the same. The backing had a hole cut out for the microwave cord, so I am thinking of replacing the backing with tongue and groove pine boards.  I had been trying to decide what to do with the upper doors. I had been thinking thought of doing punched tin panels when I got some inspiration from Pintrest. A blogger had used a Radiator cover panel to make inserts for frame doors.  I had a look around to see what was available and found that Lowe's in Waterloo sells these and so I purchased one with a cool pattern so fingers crossed it looks good when I am finished with it.

Caned wing back chair

My latest project a rescued wing-back chair that had been sitting in a barn for about 8 years.  My friends found it at a garage sale and paid $8 for it.

So this is my first attempt at refinishing an item that has an upholstery component to it. 

I gave it a good scrubbing with Murphy's oil soap  to get rid of the dust and bird droppings (yuck) and let it dry before I gave it a light sanding

Then I painted the springs with Black Tremclad paint.

I filled a couple of small holes with walnut wood filler.  Once that was dried and sanded, I used Minwax pre-stain wood conditioner followed by a couple of coats of Minwax natural stain.

Added 4 coats of Minwax Wipe-on-Poly in clear gloss (which I love)

Reset the springs to their correct position and covered them with a layer of burlap. Then a layer of foam and batting covered with another layer of burlap.

I then edged the chair with a black cord and tacked the Zebra stripe upholstery fabric in place. To hide the edge of the fabric and the tacks I glued some black braided trim on the inside of the cording.

I'm pleased with my first attempt at upholstery. Hopefully my friends like the result.

Bookcase finished ready to move upstairs

Bookcase Reno

 Found this bookcase at the end of someone's driveway for free :) that always makes me happy.

It had some water damage to the top which was a type of plywood/chipboard and it had bubbled up.

Removed the top and sanded the edges smooth to prepare it for my replacement top.

I cut some 5/8 birch plywood to size and rounded the edges to match the previous top.





I then glued and nailed it in place.  Filled the holes with wood filler.











Cutting a pine board to size to replace the missing shelf.

Rounded the edges of the shelf to match the other shelves.











 Doors and hardware removed to prep for painting.

Prepping the doors for painting.

 

Really happy with how it has turned out.  Needs to be dusted and moved upstairs :)  And the secret drawer works like a charm.  There is a heavy steel spring attached to the back of the dresser that the drawer pushes against when you slide it in, so when you release the catch it pops open.

 Shelf stained and varnished.










Shelf in place and edges routed with a round over bit. I was not sure about being able to see the inside of the dresser sides so I decided to cut a panel to hide the dresser frame at the bottom.
Also I thought that the top drawers after cleaning were too light as I had painted out the light maple frame and they were now the only part that did not match so I decided to paint them black as well and only leave the top, sides, bottom shelf and large drawers unpainted.

Board edge glued, biscuit cut, clamped for 24hrs then cut the contour for the front of the shelf and the hole for the cords at the back.

 New sides and bottoms for the two broken drawers.

 Painting out the frame.

Finally the colour is right first coat of varnish is on.

Might need to get some ebony stain as the dark walnut is not dark enough.
 

Refinishing a rocking chair

A friend's daughter is expecting her first child.  Their nursery furniture is dark so she wanted this rocking chair refinished to a dark walnut.

Chair sanded and ready for staining

pre-stain conditioner done

first coat of dark walnut stain

Replacing the bottom Drawer with a shelf

Removed the plywood shelf that the previous owners had been using.

Cut a length of ash to size.  I still need to plane, joint and glue the boards together and then cut to size my plan is to match the curve of the front of the dresser on the shelf and then route the edge to match the current design of the bottom of the dresser.  I will then stain to match the rest of the dresser. 

Removing the veneer top

So I removed the veneer from the top to see if the top could just be finished sometimes the wood under the veneer can be quite good.  Unfortunately not in this case, it looks ok from a distance but up close you can see there are grooves in the wood some are too deep to sand out so will need to get a veneer for the top.  I am going to go out to a local specialty lumber store to see what I can find today.

Turning an old dresser into an TV stand

I have been looking for an old dresser to convert to a TV stand.  Found this one yesterday on kijiji for $35.  It needs a shelf  to replace the bottom drawer and replace the plywood shelf its previous owner had put together.  The veneer on the top needs to be repaired or replaced.  I suspect replace as it quite badly damaged. Also it has three small drawers one of which is intact the other two need to be repaired.

Gothic window repurposed into a mirror

This gothic window was picked from a dumpster the home owner was replacing their windows.
I stripped the paint and then left the wood natural I used beeswax to polish the frame instead of varnish. I picked up a mirror from Value village for $3 and had a local glass company cut it for me to fit the window for $25.   Total cost to me $28

Result

Refinishing Desk and Chair Gossip bench

This is the only before I have of my table and chair gossip bench  I got it for $6 at a farm auction along with all the other stuff in the picture :) it is the dark brown table and chair with the pink fabric seat.  The varnish was peeling as it had been sitting in a barn for years.

I stripped it sanded and stained and varnished the table top and shelf and the chair. I chose to paint the rest of the desk and the chair insert a pale lilac colour.  I reupholstered the seat in a darker purple leather that I picked up at a Reuse store for $5 for a remnant roll.  Still have to add another coat of varnish to the chair and table and then it is done.  I will post a final picture when it is done.

Finished cabinet

I think I will replace the clear glass with a frosted glass eventually as I am using this cabinet to store my towels. But I am happy with how it turned out.

Working on the Cabinet

I fixed the doors replaced the glass that was missing on the one door.  Made a new insert to replace the one missing from the right hand door. Made a new side for the drawer, painted the cabinet, sanded, stained and varnished the doors, top and drawer knobs in oak.