Patching Wood....A Simple Tutorial

One of the aspects of what we do that I really enjoy besides building custom pieces, is breathing life into something someone might be putting by the curb or have just sitting in the basement or attic taking up space.  To me, furniture restoration is not just about sanding and re-painting or staining.  I am a textbook over thinker when it comes to thinking outside the box.  My mind goes in 20 different directions when I first see a piece.  Just endless possibilities.  However, drastically changing a piece's makeup will come with some need for repair.

We often run into a scenario during the restoration process where the integrity of the wood but be repaired.  Of course with time, wood will gain character however some "character" is more wear and tear.  Wood that has chipped or splintered, small holes that might have been caused by one thing or another...I could go on and on.

The first thing we want to do is check for nails that might be sticking out of the holes.  If so, bang the protruded portion of the nail back into the hole.   

When you have a piece of wood that has been chipped or splintered and would like to repair it, you will need to make sure that there is no debris on the work surface and the area effected is flat.  For this, I run a chisel over the area a few times removing any splinters of wood that might still be stuck on.  Don't worry about scratching the wood surface.  We'll be sanding before all is said and done.

Next on the agenda is to apply the wood filler.  I like using Elmers.  It's strong, mixes well with water and is a strong filler.  Another good filler is Dap.  A little wetter consistency than Elmer's but dries in a very similar way.  Both sand well and are stainable and paintable.  Take a putty knife and apply the wood filler to the area being repaired.  Make sure you don't put too much on but enough as to when you spread the filler, the effected area is covered.  Place aside and allow to dry.  Normal suggested drying time is about an hour, however I find it dries a lot faster.  you'll know it's dry as it will have a stucco like consistency.

Once dry, we take a piece of 220 Grit Sandpaper and sand down the putty to a flat surface.  Run your fingers over the sanded surface.  When you achieve the desired consistency, you are ready roll.

After you wipe off any dust and debris, and clean the surface, you are ready to paint or stain!

French Provencial Table Rennovation

My close friend had recently bought a new home and we had been talking about all of the furniture she needed to buy since they were upgrading from a two bedroom apartment in the city to a four bedroom house in the suburbs. 

Luckily, our local Boys and Girls Club was having a rummage sale and had a lot of great furniture that I would have loved to refinish. These are the moments where I really wish we had a pick up truck. They were selling a beautiful french provincial table that I thought would be perfect for her kitchen table. So, I brought it home without consulting her and hoping that she would trust my judgement. 

Since I decided to use Annie Sloan chalk paint, it took me two nights to paint the legs - one coat per night. Before I moved onto painting the table skirt I sanded the top of the table. This was quite a labor of love, let me tell you! There was a thick and stubborn coat of poly protecting this ugly stain and beautiful wood, that just didn't want to come off. 

Once the top was completely sanded I moved onto the table skirt, which again, took another two days and another two coats. You can see from the picture below the difference one extra coat of paint makes. 

 

The top required a lot of sanding to remove the varnish and stain but the wood underneath was beautiful. We applied a wood conditioner before using Minwax Provincial stain. Make sure to have a tack cloth to clean away all of the fine dust and a staining pad to apply the conditioner and stain evenly. The last step in the process was to polyurethane the top to create a hard shell for protection and to antique the bottom (we used Annie Sloan Soft Dark Wax). Below are the progression pictures. It was a tedious and lengthy process but the end result was well worth it! 

Original finish

Conditioned

Finished Table Top

Covering Those Ugly Radiators

I remember my parents old kitchen when I was a kid... Dark red wallpaper with a white polka dot design. Little thin blacks vines encompassing the dots as they flowed to the ceiling.  Red linoleum covered the floor with a brick-like design.  It had a closed in feel at times due to the dark colors of the interior.  The one thing I remember distinctively is the wooden radiator cover.  It had a solid composition and was dressed in a very dark stain and shiny poly.  A perforated aluminum screen enclosed the front for ventilation.  When my parents redid their kitchen years after moving in, they installed baseboard heating and the radiator cover was history.

When we moved into our house last September, one of the things that was an immediate eye sore was the exposed radiators in each room - and I mean each and every room!  We had spoken to a plumber friend of ours about replacing them with baseboards and he looked at us like we were insane. He explained how much heat they retain when off and how they are the most efficient source of heat that is no longer made - so we decided to keep them and address the aesthetic issue instead.

I was noodling around Pinterest to gain some inspiration that matched our style but I was continuously striking out. A large majority of them had the aluminum grate in the front which we didn't feel would fit in well with our 85 year old home and our style.  I then saw a cover that was made entirely out of wood with these beautiful slats in the front to allow proper airflow.  I really liked the boldness of the wood than the understated grating.  The Craftsman style also meshed well with our aesthetic taste and would fit in perfectly in the living room... so I got to work.

Here is our latest and greatest! We are so happy how these came out. We used Minwax Natural stain and since these covers will be exposed to temperature changes, we applied three coats of Minwax's Helmsman Spar Urethane (in semi-gloss). I can't wait to make more of these!

BEFORE

AFTER

Below is the first cover I completed for our living room. Since we spend most of our time in this room, we wanted to be sure we tackled this cover first to protect Avery. Here is the cover unfinished - I would have left it natural since the grain was beautiful but it didn't match the room - we painted it white semi-gloss to match the molding in the room.

Check out the images below for some of our recent projects.

We are currently offering our custom radiators through Etsy. Since these are custom pieces, please email us for pricing details. Be sure to include the radiator dimensions, preferred style, stain/paint/unfinished and anything else we should be aware of. 

Our Week In Review

a few pictures from this past week including a trip to Ben & Jerry's, visiting daddy at work, our 4th wedding anniversary, Mema and Pop-Pop babysitting for the weekend, sleeping past 6am, Avery going to temple for the first time, staining a dining room table, making a towel rack, mod podging Avery's stool and putting my brother to work sanding a Jenga.

Transformation Tuesday: Coffee Table

I found this coffee table at a church tag sale in our town covered by a huge pile of hand-me-down clothes they had on sale.  Protruding from underneath the garment heap were those beautiful wooden legs (insert Pirate joke here).  This sale turned into a gold mine as I scooped up a side table for my living room and a dresser for the guest room as well.

My original idea was to paint the table all black for a chic, clean look.  I wiped the table with a cloth and got down to it. I used Paint Minerals and mixed in some black paint I had left over from our front door project (more on that at another time). It was really easy to mix - All that was needed was to  add the ingredients to a mason jar and shake it for a few minutes until it exhibited a smooth consistency.

After all that paint and a little bit of distressing, this is what the table looked like. Not at all what I had envisioned. It was neither sleek or distressed enough and I wasn't feeling the black, but hey, that's what refurb and DIY is all about right?  Trial and error.

Back to drawing board I went. Since there was a layer of paint on top of a thick layer of poly, I used the lowest grit sandpaper I had in my garage. 60 worked well and within an hour and a half, the top was clean and back to it's beautiful raw state.

This table had beautiful grain and knots that needed to be shown off. I already had Minwax Walnut stain sitting in the garage which was leftover from out dining room table.  I loved how it made the grain pop.  After the stain dried overnight, I lightly sanded down the legs with 220 grit to give it a distressed look.

 A little wax to seal it all and voila! 

This guy is up on the Etsy page for sale!