How to Quickly & Easily Spruce Up Wood Furniture I'm the kind of DIY-er who imagines elaborate and wonderful furniture re-finishing ideas and is consistently too busy, lazy, or pre-occupied to execute them. But in desperate need of bedroom dressers I dropped $70 for a pair from craigslist that had good bones, but were grimy, scratched and in need of help. After a few hours of research and advice from my local hardware store, I found out that I could easily give the dressers a remarkable facelift in a few hours for less than $20 with hardly any toxic chemicals. The internet offers a wide range of advice for cleaning and refinishing vintage furniture from complicated finish stripping to techniques that only work on certain kinds of wood — and there are enough products on the market to leave a person totally confused. The steps below will work on any kind of finished wood, but results will depend on the shape of the original piece. The furniture won't necessarily be back to perfect shape, but it will look (and smell) a whole lot better.

For an expensive antique or seriously damaged piece, you may want to consider consulting a professional furniture restorer before doing anything yourself.best vacuum cleaner in delhi Murphy's Oil SoapHoward Orange Oil (or other orange oil furniture polish)Grade #0000 Steel WoolSoft Ragsupholstery cleaning nyc reviews 1. Mix the Murphy's Oil Soap with water and wash the piece with a rag dampened in the mixture. what is the best way to clean pleated shadesBe careful not to get the piece too wet — wipe down with a dry rag if there is a lot of water left on the surface. coit duct cleaning san francisco

Repeat until rags no longer pick up any grime. 2. If there is still dirt or paint stuck to the piece, rub it gently with very fine #0000 steel wool in the direction of the wood grain. best way to clean old mahogany furnitureYou may want to rub the whole surface to even it out — it will look duller after doing so, but the Orange Oil will make it shiny again. sony laptop fan runs constantlyWash again with the Murphy's Oil Soap and water to remove dust and dirt that the Steel Wool dislodged. 3. Spray the orange oil on a dry cloth and rub it over the piece. Faded areas may need a little extra oil. If any oil remains sitting on the surface, rub it with a clean, dry cloth and buff to a shine. Notes• After step 2, you can use scratch touch-up pen or paint to minimize the appearance of scratches, or better yet use a walnut.

• Results vary depending on the original condition and quality of the piece. The smaller dresser that I cleaned was made with a higher quality wood and though it was in rougher shape, it turned out better than the other one which was made with cheaper wood veneer.When you find a piece of wood furniture that needs a little love, it's really tempting to just fork over the cash and take it home as your next pet project. But wait, says woodworking expert Teri Masaschi, author of Foolproof Wood Finishing: For Those Who Love to Build & Hate to Finish. There are some things you need to consider first before you decide to refinish. "Beware of things that are painted," Masaschi says. "There's usually a reason for that." Paint can hide a multitude of sins, including burns, missing veneer and water stains. "You're far better off buying something that has old dirty varnish on it that just needs to be stripped," she says. "It's clear, you can see through it to whatever's underneath, and stripping old finish is really easy — it typically comes right off with products you can buy at the hardware store."

Look for signs that the piece was made before 1950, maybe even 1960. "That’s when particleboard and laminate surfaces and cutting corners came along," Masaschi says. Generally, even mass-produced furniture from before 1960 is sturdier and better made than today's cheap furniture — your find doesn't have to have antique value to be a great vintage piece that will give you years of service. Still, you should be careful with really old pieces, mostly those made before 1850, because refinishing them yourself can hurt their value. If you have any questions at all about the value of your piece, consult an expert before you get started. Learn what details to look for when assessing the age and quality of your piece. The next thing you need to do is give the piece what Masaschi calls "the rickety test." Put your hands on it, rock it back and forth, and test the drawers, if there are any, to see how much swaying is going on. If the piece isn't sturdy, you'll probably have to take it apart and re-glue it using clamps, and not everyone has the skill for that — or the workspace, for that matter.

If you need an expert to re-glue your piece for you, expect to pay based on how complicated the piece is. "It takes time to knock the piece apart and completely remove the old glue and start over," Masaschi says. "Re-gluing a chest of three drawers could easily cost $350 to $400." When a piece has been neglected for decades, it’s tough to tell what it will look like once it’s refinished. Although the next photo isn't the same chest, it could be: it's a fully refinished manufactured oak dresser from 1910. To get an idea of what your piece will look like refinished, find a protected spot where the original wood is visible, such as the back of a solid-wood drawer front, underneath the top surface of a chest of drawers, or the backside of a leaf in a drop-leaf table. Make sure that you like the look of the grain and that you understand what color you’ll come out with in the end—old wood often finishes much darker than newly milled wood. Here are the characteristics of several common types of wood on older furniture pieces:

Cherry is a very smooth wood with a mild grain that can be stained a variety of colors. “But if it’s 100 years old and you’ve stripped it, it’s going to be very dark,” Masaschi says. “Walnut has a more lively grain than cherry or maple,” Masaschi says, “but it’s one of the few wood types that actually gets lighter over the years.” The natural rich brown color limits the range of tones you can achieve with stain. “With old mahogany, there’s no way around it — it’s going to be very reddish,” Masaschi says. “You can go reddish red or brownish red, but you’ll never get anything else out of it.” Most old pine pieces were painted right away, so it’s rare that you’ll come across one you’ll want to strip and refinish. But if you do, expect a honey brown color that’s darker than new pine. Maple pieces made from the 1890s through the 1920s are often a beautiful figured bird’s eye or tiger maple and will have a strong yellow tone if you refinish.

Plain maple from the 1960s, which was often stained an orangey color, can be stripped and made more modern with a light brown stain. Oak: the staple wood of Victorian furniture. “Old furniture is often made of quarter-sawn oak with bold flecking in it,” Masaschi says. “If you refinish it, you’ll get that really beautiful old tiger oak grain that’s golden in color.” Make sure you're prepared for the level of involvement it will entail to restore the piece to its former glory. Here are some signs that your project may require extra steps or advanced techniques: It features deeply carved or applied filigree. "It's usually very time-consuming to strip out the old finish from all the nooks and crannies, and refinishing it will also be very tricky," Teri says. Different parts of the piece need different applications. For example, a chair with ornate sides or slats may need a delicate touch on the ornamental parts, but multiple coats of polyurethane on the arms so they'll be durable.