Restoring the Oak Buffet

After making such a good job of the oak cabinet, which I now use for wine glasses and some special antique crockery, I was requested to start on the dining room buffet. This is the before photo - oops, it's got a bottom drawer stained, which is not how we bought it. As you can see it is a blond oak and it is far too light to go with the other oak furniture living in the dining room.
4 weeks after starting the project it is now ready for unveiling. It has been stripped of all the old varnish, sanded, stained, varnished, new felt, cleaned handles and new locks.



Doesn't it look fantastic with the blue felt? The product I used for sealing was Woodoc 10 Indoor Velvet Polywax Sealer. It is so easy to use, in fact, I put it on with a cloth, so there were no problems with brush marks, it doesn't smell strongly and with the wax in it, the woods just soaks it up! It's ideal for furniture where you want a low gloss or matt finish - necessary I reckon, for antique furniture. I also bought the Woodoc Deep Penetrating Furniture Wax which will help nourish the wood for heaps more years.
As you can see in the photo on the right, even the silver has been cleaned!

An Update

OK it's time to set the record straight! People have been saying that I'm now a lady of leisure because I'm not in paid employment! Wouldn't that be something, just to lie around reading great books, eating all kinds of sweetmeats, pastries and fruit or whatever takes your fancy.
But no, I haven't blogged for 10 days because I've been busy with all kinds of things. Alas, nothing is finished yet for the photos.
Still the front door got repainted. It was looking dull and uninviting, but now is a shiny dark Karaka Green. Even the inside has had a coat of paint, and today I need to go to the paint shop to get some more Orange Scent, because we have never painted the interior of the front door! I have also stripped the dark varnish off an old 3 shelf bookcase, which is ideal for DVDs, and given that an undercoat and one top coat Orange Scent. This is so it kind of fades into the background - we don't really need another piece of furniture in the lounge that makes a "Here I am" statement - it will be too much mish-mash.
I have finished stripping the varnish off the dining room buffet and given every piece a thorough sanding. I need to stain it next before re-varnishing, but I'm a bit nervous about the staining because it has to be the correct darkness.
So, photos will be up soon when they are finished.
I have also spent 4.5 hours quilting a friend's quilt for them and 6 hours mowing the grass where the vegetable garden is supposed to be. You will be amazed when you see the before and after photos, but don't hold your breath, that's a "Have To" job which I try to do a little of each day!

Restoring a Piece of Old Furniture

Derrick's Dad died just recently and we have had some of the furniture stored in the garage. There was an old leadlight glass cabinet that I thought would be good in the dining room for the wine glasses and decorative cake plates. This is what the cabinet looked like - painted dark brown over medium coloured oak.You can see that I started to strip the legs before taking the 'Before' photo.

Now it is completely stripped and sanded ready for varnishing/oiling/waxing (I used a mixture of all three).


Finally, the completed cabinet in it's new place in the dining room. I'm really happy with how well it has turned out - already there are demands to start on another piece of furniture.