Tag Archives: furniture restoration

More Furniture

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Today I am able to unveil a piece of furniture which I first acquired several weeks ago. I had decided that I needed a piece of furniture to separate the dining area and casual sitting space. Of course, it also had to be functional. So, after a bit of searching I found an upcycled solid timber sideboard.

We collected the item and while the piece had been upcycled, it was not completely finished to my satisfaction. The top had been sanded back and was completely raw so I applied 3 coats of clear finish. I also needed some more matching paint to do a final coat on the rest of the sideboard.

Because I am using this as a room divider as well as for storage, the back of the sideboard needed to be finished as well as possible. As with the most furniture that is designed to go against a wall, the back of this piece is simply lightweight board which is stapled on. However, a couple of good coats of the dark paint is sufficient to make it satisfactory to face the casual sitting space.

The reason I chose this particular piece of furniture was that it would provide storage for the good crockery and glassware in close proximity to the dining area. The good cutlery as well as some platters and table mats are in the drawers.

Fun with Furniture

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Yesterday we picked up a couple more secondhand finds. A pair of bedside tables to complete the guest room from one seller and lamps from another.

I am convinced that there is plenty of suitable pre-loved furniture and home decor available if you are prepared to look around.

In fact, the other success actually came from within our own home. When we moved here there was cube shelving along one side of the walk-in wardrobe which was not terribly useful in my opinion. So, yesterday we moved it out of that location and into what is going to be my sewing room. Now I just need to unpack all of the boxes of fabric.

It is a very good replacement for the storage we left behind in Queensland.

Patience Pays Off

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We often think of being patient and/or persistent when it comes to locating a specific item.  It can be trawling secondhand shops or even looking for a vary particular item brand-new.

However, I have discovered that patience and allowing things to take their course can apply in equal measure when trying to sell or give something away.  Somewhere, sometime there will be somebody for whom your treasure will be just perfect.  It is simply a matter of finding them.

A case in point is this dressing table.  We bought it several years ago with a view to restoring it but plans and needs changed and we needed to find a new home for it.

The mirror attaches to the back of the dressing table and the mirror is absolutely stunning – almost a metre in diameter with a beautiful pie crust edge.

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The interior of the cupboards features a central shelf on one side and 4 drawers on the other.

I listed it over 2 months ago on several local Buy, Swap, Sell groups on Facebook.  Despite a few enquiries it failed to be sold.  A couple of weeks ago I decided to try Gumtree and was feeling a bit despondent as there did not seem to be any interest.

Yesterday I received an enquiry about the Gumtree advertisement from people who live in an adjacent locality in our semi-rural area.  They arranged to collect it at 10am this morning.

I held my breath as I cannot remember the countless times that promising sales or giveaways have failed to eventuate.

As arranged the purchasers arrived with a trailer at the appointed time and were absolutely delighted with the dressing table which they plan to put to good use as they fit out their newly-acquired home.

I was really pleased to see this go to a good home and know that it will be appreciated.

Restored

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The joy and satisfaction of a restored piece of furniture cannot be underestimated – especially when you have undertaken the job yourselves.

This post from November last year tells the story of our most recent furniture acquisition.  It was in very good condition but GMan sanded and recoated the entire piece, however, the real difference was the replacement of the drawer handles.

I have been using the dressing table for about 3 weeks while we were waiting to collect the new mirror.  I chose to have bevelled edges to replicate the original.

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Today we fitted the mirror in the frame and attached it to the dressing table.

Before and after photos.

I am really pleased with the final result.

Almost Finished

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We are on a mission to try to finish several projects around the place.  Hot on the heels of the completed cold frame, we finished replacing the handles on our latest restoration project.

It is now over 6 years since I wrote about the silky oak dressing table/drawers that we restored.  You can read about it here.  This piece has now been relocated to the guest room.

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The latest restored piece is slightly larger and now has pride of place in my bedroom.  It is also silky oak and a very similar style to the other one.  The mirror for this one is larger and rectangular rather than oval.

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The final step is the new mirror which we hope to pick up this week.

I do not think we are likely to be restoring any other large pieces of furniture in the foreseeable future but there are plenty of other jobs.  We are now working on finishing the top of the pergola/walkway.  This has become rather necessary as the mandevilla creeper has now almost reached the top of the wire on the sides of the pergola.

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This was just after we had planted them in September 2018.

 

New to Us

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A few days ago I was lying in bed in the morning  and scrolling through Facebook when a Marketplace advertisement popped up and caught my eye.  It was for a silky oak dressing table which looked to be in pretty good condition and a fair price- $150.  Silky oak is a tree which is native to where I live and we have one growing on our property so it is quite special to have furniture which was obviously made with locally sourced timber.

Within a matter of 10 minutes I had contacted the seller and arranged to buy it with collection that afternoon.  GMan and I took the ute and collected this beauty.

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It is currently in the workshop as we intend to sand and refinish the timber as well as replacing the handles on the drawers and possibly replacing the mirror.

You may remember the other dressing table, also silky oak, which GMan restored a few years ago.

Dressing table

Once the new one is restored I will probably swap the existing one to the guest room and replace it with the slightly larger one in our bedroom as there is more drawer space.

Finally Finished

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It is 2 months since I wrote this post about buying the fabric to make a new cover for the day bed.  I had made a small start a few weeks ago but today I started seriously sewing.

I have now finished the cover apart from the fasteners for the straps which will hold it in place.  I will buy some more this week.

Here is the end result.

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As described in my earlier post, the other side is vinyl so that I can leave it reversed when not in use so that if the cat sleeps on it the cat hair will be easy to remove with a damp cloth.

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I am very pleased with the result and the colours match the other furniture and details on the verandah.

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It is interesting that I am posting this just after completing the series on frugality.

Here is a large chest of drawers that we bought a couple of years ago with a view to them being restored.

Chest of drawers

GMan has done a couple of pieces but this was not in good structural condition so we decided to take it to a professional.  Hans from Montville Joinery did an amazing job and this is the result.

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Apologies for the dark photo but I think you will get the idea.

All in all, I think it was definitely worthwhile as this beautiful red cedar chest of drawers has a new lease of life and will be cherished for many more years.  Even though we did not do the actual restoration, there is an enormous degree of satisfaction in finding an old, neglected piece of furniture and seeing it brought back to life as a functioning item.

Field Day, Freebies & a Film

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Just in case you think I spend all my time cooking, washing, ironing, mending and gardening this post is to tell you otherwise.

Yesterday we started the weekend much the same as most others – washing and kitchen chores for me and GMan mowing the front lawn.  However, we had a grand plan.

We headed out after an early lunch so that we could go to the local hardware store before it closed at 1pm.  They have an excellent nursery section and our plan was to buy some more blueberry bushes.  We are now the proud owners of 6 new blueberries ready to plant.  We continued further afield to Conondale where the council were holding a field day to showcase information about feral animals and weeds.  We gleaned some useful information on weeds in our area as well as the prevalence of wild dogs.  The best part was the 8 free trees we were given.

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The trees were all in small tubes, however, GMan has repotted them into slightly larger pots in the hope of getting them more established before we plant them out.  The area where we want to plant them is on the steep, fairly inaccessible escarpment at the back of our property where they will have to fend for themselves once they are planted.  No mollycoddling around here.

A loop drive through Kenilworth and the Obi Obi road took us back home via Mapleton and Montville.  We stopped at the cheese factory in Kenilworth where we bought a large (2.4kg) block of cheese and treated ourselves to an ice-cream.

Our final stop was at Montville Joinery to review the progress of the restoration of an old chest of drawers which Hans is working on for us.  This is the ‘before’ shot.

Chest of drawers

Once it is finished I will do a blog post showing the end result.

Last night was film night at the Maleny Film Society, where we saw a contemporary Australian film, ‘Saving Grace’.  While it is perhaps not the best film I have ever seen it was interesting with a couple of unexpected twists.

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From this

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002I am really pleased with how this turned out.  We trusted the skill and judgement of Hans at Montville Joinery and would highly recommend him if you live in the area.

Bringing this piece of furniture into the house has led to some further re-arranging of furniture to best meet our needs and there will be more about that in a later post.