How to Tell If Wood Furniture Is Worth Refinishing

We've all done it - found a piece of worn wood furniture at an estate sale or flea market and thought "I'll just refinish this and it will be brilliant". 

When you find a piece of wood furniture like this, it's really tempting to pull out your wallet and slide it in the truck. Often times though, we don't realize how much work this may equate to. It may also far exceed the cost of simply buying new (in some cases). There's a handful of things you need to consider before making the choice to refinish wood furniture.

Read on.

Is it high-quality construction?

This is the most important thing to consider. Wood furniture pieces that endure the ages are a high-quality build. Its hard to find these days in modern furniture design, so you are probably running across these in estate sales or grandma's attic. Know your construction standards. 

“Your find doesn’t have to have antique value to be a great vintage piece that will give you years of service.”

You'll want to look for signs that the piece was made before 1950, maybe even 1960, but really no later... It was after this time period that particle board and laminate surfaces began cutting corners and cheapening production cost. By today's standard, even furniture that was mass produced on an assembly line in the 1950's would be much sturdier and of a higher quality 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, but still, you need to be extra-careful with really old pieces. There are a lot of vintage pieces of wood furniture out there made before the 1850's and attempting to refinish them yourself can really hurt their value. If you find a piece like this and you inevitably want it, consult an expert before starting this project. 

Is the piece of wood furniture painted?

Put on your expert eye here. You should be leery of things that are painted - there is usually a reason for that. If a piece of wood furniture had run its course, the owner may have painted it to cover water damage or stains, burns, filled holes, etc. It could ultimately reveal a double-time job and not yield the result you were expecting.

You are probably better off finding something that an old stank on it, like aged dirty varnish that just needs to be stripped off. You can typically see through varnish at what lies beneath - there shouldn't be too many surprises. It's also easy to do with some basics from the hardware store; it should come right off. 

Does the piece require re-gluing?

Next up. Give the wood furniture piece the rocking test. Put your hands on it and rock it back and forth, test drawers, look for sway, sit on it, etc. If the piece is not sturdy, you will have to take it apart and re-glue it using clamps. This isn't necessarily everyone's lane, so if you don't have the skill or workspace for that, you'll need to hire a professional woodworker to help with the job. 

It does take time to knock a piece of wood furniture apart and completely remove the old glue and start from scratch. If you need to hire an expert to re-glue this piece for you, you can expect to pay a nice penny for it. For example, a chest of three drawers can easily run you $350 - $400. 

What will it look like when it's done?

It's really hard to know what the piece of wood furniture will look like once it's refinished. 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. This is where you can determine if you like the look of the grain and that you understand what color will emerge in the end. Wood that is older will often re-finish much darker than newly milled wood. 

Make sure that you like the look of the grain and that you understand what color you’ll come out within 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:

Walnut

Walnut has a more lively grain than cherry or maple. It is one of the few wood types that can actually get lighter over the years. So the range of tones that you can achieve with stain can be limited by the natural rich brown color.

Cherry

Cherry is a very smooth wood with a mild grain that can be stained a variety of colors. If the wood furniture piece is 100 years old, however, and you've stripped it, the refinished wood is going to be very dark. 

Mahagony

Mahagony is a love it or lose it wood type for many. No matter what you do to it, you are going to expel a reddish color during the refinishing process. It may be brown-red, but in the end, it will be red in appearance. For some, this is defining and unique, elegant and rich. For others, they couldn't imagine it in their home. You decide.

Pine

Most pine, regardless of era, would have probably been painted right away. So in this case, it's pretty rare that you'll run across one that you'll want to strip and refinish. But who knows... If you do, you can expect a honey-brown color that is darker than new pine. 

Maple

Maple pieces made from the 1890's through the 1920's are often a beautiful figured bird’s eye or tiger maple and will have a strong yellow tone if you refinish them. Plain maple from the 1960's, (which was often stained an orangish color) can be stripped and made more modern with a light brown stain.

Oak

Oak was the core element of Victorian furniture. "Old" furniture was often made of quarter-sawn oak with a bold flecking in it. When you refinish the type of oak wood furniture, you can get a beautiful old tiger oak grain that appears golden in color. Very royal!

“Just remember to buy the piece for what it is rather than what you think it could be. 

”

 

Will the refinishing job be difficult?

If you a DIYer, its all about the process for you, but you need to be prepared for the level of involvement in this project in order to restore a piece of wood furniture to new. Just be on the lookout for a few signs that your project may require extra work, advanced techniques or help from an expert. 

1. The piece has slats or spindles that are very close together
2. Different parts will need different applications.
3. It's made from random boards that are not from the same tree. 
4. It has deeply carved or applied filigree. (Time-consuming...)

The bottom line

Be prepared to walk away. Not every piece you find will be an amazing story of restoration. It could just end up being a tremendous headache and expense. It starts with a time investment into some furniture history, tell-tale signs and some patience in your quest. If you can exercise these things, you'll find your gem in the rough.

If you've acquired a piece but you are not sure what you have, then consult an expert. You may also want to contact professional restoration specialists to help bring it back to life before your journey gets too treacherous. 

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How To Refinish Wood Furniture

Some essential tools for refinishing your wood furniture

If you're thinking that your wood furniture is worn, beat, sun-faded and potentially scratched up by the cat, then you might consider refinishing the wood. Such items in your household might be a dresser, nightstand, family room table, dining room table, chairs, etc. There are basic essential tools you'll need to perform this job properly.

Step 1 - Round up your tools

• Wipe-on stains and finishes
• Good cloths
• Fine steel wool and paste wax
• Some random odds & ends

• Stripper for paint removal
• Stripper for finish removal
• Power sander
• Good sandpaper

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1. A thick stripper for paint removal. There are all kinds of strippers available on the market, but for these types of projects, you'll want to get thick coats of paint off an old piece of furniture. You'll need a thick product that clings to it in order to get the job done. As your local hardware guy for his advice. 
2. A thin stripper for finish removal. For old finishes, you won't need something as "powerful" as the above recommendations. Look for a watery stripper that you can use to wash down the piece by soaking it over and over again with a brush (earmark this brush for this function). The stripper dissolves everything and it should fall right off. Obviously, you'll want to do over a drop cloth, pan or something to protect the work area. 
3. A power sander. Once you've stripped the surface of the wood furniture piece you are working to restore, you'll need to smooth the surface out by sanding it. You can sand by hand, if you want..., at about 150 strokes per minute. If you're like us though, you'll want to cut this tedious activity down and save your arm by using a power sander. This will increase your productivity to around 7,000 strokes per minute. You'll probably want sander discs on hand in grit sizes from 80 - 200.
4. Sandpaper. In addition to power sanding discs, get some 320- and 400-grit sheets of sandpaper plus a couple of blocks for hand sanding. Again, there is sandpaper galore when you explore the hardware store, but some do actually stay sharp and last throughout your project; as your guy. There are also a lot of blocks on the market, but to keep it simple, use a felt block or a wood block with some cork glued to it to save your sandpaper in use.
5. Wipe-on stains and finishes. If you're a novice in this area and getting into your first or second project, you may want to use wipe-on polyurethane and gel stains (or gel topcoat) products. They take a bit longer to use, but they are easy to use and they turn out looking really nice. Brush on products are also an option, but they are thicker and stay wet longer so drips, sags, brushstrokes etc are more of a common challenge you'll have to deal with. If you're a pro, well... then you're probably on to spray guns.
6. Good cloths. That's right, your cloths must be "good", and by this we mean spun cotton products that stand up to the test of time. There's no need to buy new shop rags: just wash some old cotton T-shirts. One thing to be careful about is to make sure they are lint-free. You'll leave little visitors all over your product otherwise.  After using your rags or cloths, put them outside to dry right away. Dry rags won't combust like a wet rag has the potential to do.

7. Fine steel wool and paste wax. The curing of your wipe-on finish may take some time - a couple of weeks to be exact. At this stage, you'll want to do a soft rub-out with fine steel wool and paste wax. By gently rubbing the surface along the grain and buffing it out with a soft rag, you'll end up with a beautiful soft finish.

8. Odds and ends. Plan ahead. Like any project, it’s a good idea to have a few things on hand before you start a refinishing project. These items could be painter’s tape, pencils and markers, disposable plastic cups, finishing nails, stirring sticks, household ammonia for brush cleaning, clean canning jars, old tablespoons and yellow wood glue. You'll be looking for all of this stuff throughout your project.

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How to refinish wood furniture

Apply stripper

Depending on the size of your project, you will have chosen the appropriate stipper. Use your thick stripper for above for large projects and wood furniture with layers of paint on it. For small projects, you can now use aerosol spray paint stripper. It’s easy to control and it won’t spill, so it's convenient for a lot of people that are doing projects at home. Once you've applied your stripper, let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. You’ll see the old finish start to lift up off the wood.

Remove any old finish

Use your scraper tool to remove the old finish. Keep a disposable shop cloth or paper towel roll around to wipe the blade between scrapes. You may have to apply stripper and scrape more than once in order to remove the majority of the old finish.

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Clean it with mineral spirits

You'll want to clean the area at this point. It's kind of like a medical procedure... everything must be in order and as clean as possible. So once you’re done stripping and the surface and it has dried, wipe the wood with mineral spirits using a clean cloth. This will remove any residual stripper from your project. Allow it to dry for a few hours at least.

Sand it smooth

You've heard the phrase "smooth like a baby's butt" - this is your time. Use your power sander with medium-grit sandpaper (about 150-grit) until you can see the bare wood. Then switch to a finer sandpaper (such as 200+ grit) until the entire piece is uniform and "smooth like a baby's butt". Afterward, wipe down the entire surface with a clean tack cloth to remove any sanding residue.

“You may need to apply multiple coats until you achieve the color you’re looking for.”

 

Apply the stain

We talked about wipe-on stains above and we're assuming you are in that novice category. Staining is easiest to do with a staining pad. Just dip the pad in the wipe-on stain and wipe it on using long, even strokes. Just like painting a surface, you'll want to apply even pressure and length to your work.

When you're done, you'll want to use a clean wiping cloth to remove excess stain. Wipe lightly along the grain - this will prevent streaking. Just like trimming your filet mignon, if you go against the grain, you'll get funky results that fight with you along the way.  You may need to apply multiple coats until you achieve the color you're looking for. Follow this process until you like the end result, but it is key to let it dry between coats otherwise you won't see the true color of the stain. 

Apply your paste wax

This the stage where your steel wool and paste wax come in handy. Do a soft rub-out with fine steel wool and paste wax. By gently rubbing the surface along the grain and buffing it out with a soft rag, you'll end up with a beautiful soft finish.

Or you may want to apply an oil-based clear coat for a final layer of protection. Keep in mind, this will also give it a whole new sheen and luster, so if that's not the vintage look you're going for you can skip this (knowing that you may damage your newly refinished wood faster). You can sand with fine paper.

Let it dry

After you steel wool-rub or clear coat it, let your finished piece fully cure in a warm, dry, well-ventilated area. We recommend doing this for at least 24 hours before you put your wood furniture piece back to use. 

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That's it! With a little time investment and some good products, you can turn your old, worn wood furniture piece into a striking new accessory for your home. Here's a video below from the DIY Network showing you one process on wood trim.

Nicole shows how to restore painted wood trim to its original beauty.

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