Tag Archives: furniture resoration

Clothes Storage

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When we left Maleny we chose to sell 2 large vintage silky oak dressing tables with plenty of storage in drawers as well as a large cedar chest of drawers. We correctly surmised that these would neither suit nor fit in the bedroom of our new home.

We now have a large walk-in wardrobe which will be reduced in size somewhat when we eventually use part of that area to remodel and enlarge the butler’s pantry. After a bit of searching on Marketplace we found a long, low chest of drawers with a more modern profile. They had been given a fairly quick makeover but we decided to put our own touch on them. GMan completed all of the painting a couple of months ago but we had to wait about 6 weeks for the knobs that we ordered.

Yesterday we attached the knobs and completely reassembled the chest of drawers. I am so pleased to have these finished and the opportunity to finally arrange all of my clothes in some sort of order.

There is plenty of space for all of our clothes which are folded up apart from underwear and socks which are in the small bedside chests of drawers. They are the next thing on the restoration list as GMan intends to paint them white (top and sides) with navy drawer fronts to match the large set. You can see them in this photo.

Once we set up the lounge room with the new furniture, the cedar chest was relocated to the lounge room for use as a coffee table. You can see it here.

Refreshed, Ready to Use

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It is over 2 years since my mother died and in many ways it seems like just yesterday. Both of my parents were small children during the Great Depression which undoubtedly coloured their views of taking care of their possessions and mending, repairing and upcycling where necessary. Throwing perfectly good items away was simply not in their DNA. Much of this mindset filtered down to my siblings and me so we felt a certain obligation to ensure that Mum’s personal effects were distributed wisely. Some went to various family members, others were sold and yet more went to charities who could use them.

I was surprised when my younger daughter expressed an interest in the kitchen stepstool. It was sturdy but had seen better days and the orange vinyl seat screamed 1970s. Nevertheless, she was keen to have the stool as it offered a practical solution for accessing the top shelves of her kitchen cupboards as well having some special memories of helping in her grandma’s kitchen when she was a young child.

I don’t have any before photos but GMan dismantled the stool, removed the seat and spraypainted the metal frame. We disassembled the seat, scrubbed the vinyl cover, bought a new piece of foam and cut a replacement base from some leftover timber. I used upholstery staples to recover the seat using the same vinyl cover. This is apparently some of the appeal to my daughter.

Here is the end result.

The seat folds up to allow the steps to be accessed. Note the photobombing dog!!

We will be delivering the refurbished stepstool to its new home this week.

Don’t forget that there are various repair cafes and groups who can assist with restoring/repairing items if they are beyond what you are prepared to tackle.

Remember, the most sustainable items are those that you already own.

Downsizing the Drawers

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Last week I showed you some of our furniture restoration projects.  Like everything we do they did not come to fruition quickly.  In fact, The Duke found the receipt for the new hardware for the drawers which was dated May 2012!!

The drawers are finally finished (apart from the mirror) and have been moved into our bedroom.

This is what they have replaced.

Chest of drawers
The first step was to remove the contents from the existing chest of drawers.
As per any good decluttering guide, the first step is to remove everything from its existing location.  Even though it was completely necessary to do it in this instance,it is certainly sobering to see the entire contents piled on the floor.  I was amazed at the things that I ‘found’ that had not been worn for some time.  After carefully sorting the items I managed to toss 2 pairs of socks  and an old t-shirt.  There probably should have been more but it is a case of small steps.

My clothes
I also removed the drawer liners and cut the pieces to size to re-use in the new drawers.

Drawer liners
It took a bit of judicious re-arranging but the clothes all fitted in.  This was mainly because the drawers in the new dressing table are somewhat deeper than in the previous chest of drawers even though there are less drawers.

Dressing table
This is my new dressing table/clothes storage which is silky oak timber.  The silky oak tree is native to the local area in which we live.  We bought this about 2 years ago and The Duke stripped all of the paint from it, sanded and stained the piece of furniture.  All of the drawer handles are new reproductions of a style similar to what would have been on the drawers originally.  All that is left to do is to get a new mirror cut and place in the oval frame which will be suspended between the 2 timber uprights that you can see in the photo.  We are taking the old mirror to town tomorrow to get it done.

I am really pleased with how this has turned out.  There is a huge degree of satisfaction in restoring old pieces of furniture and bringing them back to life.