How to fix broken veneer and getting the smell out of old wood furniture

 

I found this dingy looking piece of furniture one morning running off to work. Luckily I was able to call and convince the husband to come and get it before anyone else (probably most likely the garbage truck).

One good thing about this tragic piece was that the previous owner had thrown the broken off door inside of it

The first thing this little cabinet/dresser needed was good, old sponge bath. Soap and water x 3.

That set off a stench of cigaret smoke like there was no tomorrow. My goodness this poor piece of furniture appeared to be a clear candidate for smoke related diseases. Awful! So my next step then became getting the smell out. White wine vinegar is almost the solution to all problems and it also works to get smells out.

I more or less drenched the cabinet/dresser in white wine vinegar. Now it smelled like one big pickled factory. So to remedy this I set a few cups of cat litter in there to absorb the smell. To be on the safe side I just let it sit for a few days with cat litter sand.

With the smell and the dirt gone I still needed to remove all old paint stains on the surface without damaging the actual paint-stain. There are few things Clinique Skin Toner won't remove - including paint.

A few cotton pads later drenched with the toner removed the stains from the surface. Just be careful with this stuff as if you press too hard it will remove the paint as well (needless to say it has been a while since I stopped putting Clinque products on my skin - even though I think it is mainly rubbing alcohol in this one working its' magic).


The next problem was the veneer damage.

Your winning tool here is a good old iron. By pressing an iron - with some wax paper and possibly a towel in between - you will loosen the glue in the veneer and can then easily "lift" it off the furniture and remove it.

 I then cut veneer to fit the size - if you use the wax paper and "shade" with a pencil on top (the way you copy the surface of a coin) you get the exact shape and size of the veneer you need. This you can then easily iron on where the old veneer used to be. Just be careful not to touch the paint and lacquer on the sides with the iron as the heat may very well damage it. To make sure the veneer was perfectly even with the old veneer I used a bread-pin to flatten it as much as possible.

The veneer comes on a roll like this and you can just cut so size

 With the smell gone, the stains gone and the veneer replaced I just re-attached the door, added one thin layer of stain (I mixed to color of stains to get the exact tone I wanted) over the new and old veneer and everything else, one layer of polyurethane and two knobs. And that's it! (oh by the way the old veneer was replaced on the side but you cannot see it unless you were to look really close up)

DYI necklaces from old vintage pieces and beads

A few days ago I attended a really fun jewelry-making class at one of the Anthropologie stores in Manhattan. It was a haven of beads, ribbons, a few hardware tools and a lot of creativity.

It was also really great to see all the master pieces everyone was coming up with. I made these two pieces my self and was amazed by how easy it was.

All you need is a bunch of beads or brooches or essentially any type of small knick-knack you would not mind wearing around your neck. Old vintage pieces are ideal - especially if you have something that has broken and that you don't know what to do with. I have a few jars where I throw beads and clasps into every time something break - but if you are less clumsy than I am Michael's Art Supplies has loads of beads and pendants.

Made of part fabric and part metal chain

You need something to attach your things to and just about anything work - ribbon, chains or broken chains that you connect or even rope. In the second piece I used ribbon and chains. And finally - everything gets attached with either jump rings or plain old glue. A jump ring is just a tiny little ring you use to open - by using a little plyer tool - and then close again once you have attached it to either the ribbon or the chain. Add a clasp and you are done! Would love to see your pictures and master pieces!

Vintage furniture and other goodies for sale

A friend of mine is moving to Europe - what luck! - and has a bunch of stuff he has - somewhat reluctantly - decided to part with. I thought is was really awesome and cute stuff so I promised him I would upload it here. He has an Etsy page as well and specifically told me that his prices are flexible - if you want to get your hands on some of these goodies shoot him an e-mail at his Etsy store.

Happy Shopping!

And here is his Etsy page: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ParkSlopeVintage?ref=ss_profile

Old restaurant chairs get an updated look

 A restaurant in Caroll Gardens, Brooklyn was renovating and decided they did not need these chairs any more. Well good - because I did. They - the chairs that is - actually didn't need a lot. A little love - translated into wood-glue - and a coat of paint.

I really like they sort of ethnic feel. Even though it does not show so well on the pictures the backs have fairly intricate carvings. Since I have a thing for turquoise lately that's the color it had to be.

I still need to make some sort of cushions for them and I was thinking a dark coral but can't seem to find a fabric I like so for now we'll settle for some Chinese fabric and I just added a few tassels to funk them a little. Da-dam!

Getting creative with a beaten up vintage table

 

One of my latest finds is this little sweet vintage table that was sitting on the corner of the street awaiting its' sad faith and the garbage truck.

The surface was in pretty bad shape and had plenty water damage.

I know there is the right way of doing things and then there is the lazy way with almost just as good of a result. Since I fall in the second category I stripped only the surface and I then used some iron-ons designs to make it a little bit more fun.

If you do this just be patient with the iron as it takes some time for the iron-on to transfer to the wood.

I then re-stained the top by mixing two stains until I got the color I wanted.

There is no problem mixing stains as long as they are both either oil-based or water-based.  Lastly covered it with a few layers of lacquer and - voila! What do you think?