Restoring old furniture: How to make antique pieces look like new!
Have you discovered a wooden chest in your grandparents' attic that would look great in your bedroom? Or have an old chair that is just too good to throw away? Antique furniture restoration is very much in vogue right now. More and more people are beginning to get into it as a pastime.
Valuable designer furniture or genuine antiques belong in the hands of a professional restorer. However, old and unloved pieces that would otherwise be considered junk are a great place to start restoring furniture for beginners.
We have compiled some of the most common furniture restoration techniques right here and we guide you through each of them step-by-step.
Our tips and ideas will turn your old and tired pieces of furniture into the centrepiece of your room!
Planning & background knowledge for restoring furniture
If you want to restore a piece of furniture and breathe new life into it, you should first think about what your ultimate goal is. Do you want to refinish a piece of furniture and restore it to its original quality standard? Or do you want to create something entirely new?
- Restoration: restore old furniture to its original state
- Renovation: Refurbishing furniture so that it looks like new
As an example: If you paint an old cabinet from a second-hand store with a trendy, shabby-chic paint job, that would be considered a renovation. On the other hand, if you find a paint to match the original style and colour, that would be considered a renovation.
For the renovating and restoring of furniture, there is a wide range of craft techniques you can utilise. The specific process depends on the nature and condition of the furniture, as well as your desired end result.
Antique or just old?
Clean furniture and check it thoroughly
To get a better understanding of the amount of work required, you should first clean the piece of furniture thoroughly. As a rule, a mild washing-up liquid diluted with water is often sufficient. Stubborn stains can be removed with a cleaning chemicals and spirits, like white spirit. However, you should first test any chemicals on a small or hidden patch of the furniture to see if they will damage the surface in any way before you start using them.
Before you begin, make sure to follow the typical health and safety precautions to avoid injury or accidents. See our safety precautions for DIY guide for more important information.
Once fully cleaned, it’s time to take a closer look at the condition of your furniture. Are there any scratches, cracks or dents? Is there any discolouration? Do the drawers and doors open easily? Are any parts wobbling or missing? Now it’s time to decide whether you simply want to restore the furniture or put your DIY skills to the test with a complete renovation.
Restore stability and functionality
Regardless of what you choose to do, the next step is to restore the functionality and stability of the piece of furniture so that it can be used safely and as intended.
- Loosened glue joints: Refinishing wood furniture often begins with replacing glue joints that can become significantly weakened over time. Carefully proceed to scrape off the old glue with a chisel and coat both joints with fresh wood glue. Replace any dowels that are no longer needed and use a mallet to ensure a firm connection. Once the pieces are put together, you might need to use some clamps to secure the furniture while it dries.
- Broken hinge: If a hinge can no longer be fastened with screws, then it might be necessary to remove and replace it completely. Repair any broken areas with filler. Take your time and use multiple applications to fill any deep cracks or gaps. Insert the hinge and apply filler all around. After drying, the area can then be smoothed with sandpaper. All you need to do now is refinish your wood furniture with a paint or finish of your choice.
- Upholstering seating furniture: Foams of classes RG 35/50 and RG 50/70 are suitable as seat cushions. The padding should be slightly larger than the old one. Glue the foam with spray glue, a glue stick or glue gun. Cut upholstery to size, cover the foam with your desired fabric and affix it with tackers. Read our guide on upcycling a chair for more detailed guidance.
Remove water stains
Water can damage wooden furniture, leaving light or dark stains. Pieces that have been exposed to water damage for an extended period of time are particularly vulnerable. So, how to restore furniture with water damage?
Superficial stains can be polished away easily with a cotton cloth and some furniture polish. No polish to hand? Toothpaste also works surprisingly well as an alternative. If water has penetrated deeper into the wooden fibres, you can try treating the stain by applying cooking oil (olive or sunflower oil) and salt. If neither method helps, then you may have to sand and reseal the wood.
Repair scratches, cracks and holes
Scratches, cracks and holes in old wooden furniture can be filled with wood paste, wax or wood putty. It is best to choose a shade darker than the wood so that the repaired area is less noticeable later. Fill deeper holes and cracks in several layers. Then, apply the same paint of treatment that you are using to restore the rest of the furniture piece.
Refurbishing veneer
With many old pieces of furniture, you might come across a veneer – a thin layer of higher-quality wood glued to lower-quality wood. Over time, these veneers may come loose, break or crack. You can easily repair minor damage on your own:
- Detached corners and edges: Add a small amount of wood glue to the veneer and use something weighty, such as a pile of books, to create a seal.
- Bubbles: First, you can try to loosen the glue under the veneer by heating it with an iron. Set to a medium temperature and place a cloth between the iron and the wood. If this method does not work, use a disposable syringe to inject some wood glue under the peeled veneer and weigh it down while the glue dries.
- Holes and defects: For badly chipped pieces, you might well need a whole new veneer to properly restore the furniture. Use a jigsaw or similar tool to cut a rough new piece of veneer that is slightly larger than the existing piece. Place this on the piece of furniture and trace the outline with a pencil. Then, use your tools to cut the old veneer along the traced lines. If necessary, carefully use a chisel to remove the old veneer. Spread some wood glue on the new piece, fix it into position and secure with weights. Once the glue is fully dried, a new colour or stain can be applied.
Surface treatment: Sanding, painting, and polishing
If you want to remove the existing surface treatment before refinishing the wood furniture, first try using a damp cloth (for water-soluble paints). If that does not work, a combination of heating and stripping tools might be necessary.
Sometimes, restoring old furniture is just about returning it to its former glory and finding a finish that matches the original as closely as possible. If you want to create something new entirely, perhaps to match your existing design aesthetic, be sure to check out our guide on how different colours can affect the feeling of your home.
Before applying a new finish, you must first sand solid wood furniture. This can be done very quickly and effortlessly with a multi-sander and sandpaper in 180 or 240 grit. Always work in the direction of the grain. For curves, you can use fine abrasive fleece or steel wool. Our comprehensive guide to sanding provides all the additional information you might need.
Remove any loose sawdust easily with a vacuum cleaner. Use a paint stripper and a spatula to remove stubborn paint layers. Avoid sanding veneered furniture, as the thin veneer can easily be damaged.
Acrylic paints, acrylic varnishes or chalk paints are all good choices for painting your furniture. Not sure how to refinish wooden furniture with paint? You can find detailed instructions in our article on painting furniture. For an even application of paint, we recommend using a paint sprayer (see our paint spray guide for further assistance).
If a single-tone surface doesn’t quite capture your imagination, check out our DIY instructions for a chest of drawers in a zig-zag pattern for some more inspiration. Of course, applying a protective glaze can also help your restored furniture retain its glow for much longer.
Shellac, a natural raw material obtained from the excretions of lac insects, is often used in antique furniture restoration. Use a wide brush to apply and work quickly as shellac dries very fast. Once the painted surface has dried, it can then be waxed and polished. This not only gives it an attractive sheen, but the wax or polish acts as a protective sealant.
Restoring and renovating: Ideas for old furniture
Splintered, worn, outdated: Disused furniture can often feel like it is good for nothing but the landfill. However, with a little passion and DIY know-how, new life can be breathed into so many different types of furniture, as the following examples show.
Old meets new with these chest of drawers
Discover how to transform a boring old chest of drawers into a chic 1950s-inspired set with our step-by-step DIY instructions: Create your own mid-century chest of drawers.
And that’s not all. Our DIY Upcycling Projects section is filled with so many more guides on how to restore wooden furniture and other dated pieces to transform them into true showstoppers:
Bringing a pop of colour to an old chair
Just look at what a new coat of paint can do! The red lacquer transforms the disused café chair into a modern centrepiece.
A Biedermeier sofa before and after
It's hard to believe that this Biedermeier sofa once looked like that. Since this is a real antique, it is better to leave a piece of furniture like this to a professional restorer.
Cost overview: Restoring furniture
The repairing or restoring of furniture by a specialist company is usually only worthwhile for valuable pieces or furnishings, or pieces with great sentimental value. The costs depend on the size and type of furniture, its condition, the amount of work involved, and the materials used.
Some examples:
| Repair type | Costs of a specialist company | DIY costs |
| filling a small hole in a cupboard door with wax | £30–£50 | Wax putty: £5–£8 |
| re-glueing a wobbly chair | £20–£60 | Wood glue: £3–£4 |
| Sanding and repainting scratched table surface | £150–£300 | Sandpaper: £0.80 /sheet Paint: £10–£30 |
| Upholstering an armchair | £600–£1000 | Foam board, 100 x 100 cm, RG 35/50: £10 Upholstery fabric: from £10/m² |
| Sealing and polishing chest of drawers with shellac | £400–£600 | Shellac: £20–50/l |