Restore, Refinish or Repurpose

When you have a piece of furniture that needs some work, the question is to restore or refinish. I know the big trend in furniture is to paint the furniture. However, in my opinion, you should really weigh this decision carefully. Trends come and go. What is big today, may not be so neat tomorrow. There’s a little part of me that fears the aqua I love today, may one day feel like the Dusty Rose of the ’80s or the Avocado Green of the ’70s. Painting furniture is hard to undo. For this reason, ask yourself these questions:

1.What’s the quality of the wood on the piece? 

Solid Mahogany or black walnut or Quarter-sawn (aka Tiger Oak) are expensive woods. It’s not the cheap MDF or Pine. When you cover these beautiful woods, you are taking away some of the intrinsic value of the furniture.

 

 

2. Can the piece be restored to showcase the wood?

As with the buffet I did, it wasn’t possible for me to repair the damage and keep the entire buffet as a wood finish. The repair would have always looked like a repair. But by restoring the top and refinishing the bottom, I got the best of both worlds.

Oak has been the most common wood used for furniture in the past few decades. A lot of oak looks orangy and maybe your home has no room for oak.

 

Option 1: Restore

 To RESTORE a piece, you want to return it as close to it’s original state as possible. If you are dealing with an antique piece of furniture, this almost always will mean to keep a wood look.