Jewelry Designer Blog. Jewelry by Natalia Khon: My first experience of amateur restoration. The first and the last, I think. (Guest post by Marina Zabrodina)

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

This is a guest post by an illustrator Marina Zabrodina. You can find her previous guest posts here and here.

----

So, I decided to give second life to the bedside table rotting in a shed, that was lucky to get my eyes on it on one sunny June day...

Here it is:

It was very old... made at least seventy years ago of solid wood and plywood (I think).

This is what I needed to do to give it a decent look and make it usable:

• to sand the surface and remove the old paint as much as possible,

• to replace the rear wall that was rotten and partially eaten by some bug,

• to replace the bottom,

• to replace the shelf,

• to replace the lid,

• to put a few wooden patches over the holes for the the door hinges on both sides,

• to patch and sand the cabinet,

• to paint it,

• to put a wooden patch on the door,

• to patch and sand the door,

• to paint the door

• to re-make the drawer,

• to decorate the surface by using pyrography technique for the drawer front, the lid and the shelf,

• to decorate the door with a piece of tapestry,

• to replace the missing handles,

• to hang the door on the hinges.

That was the exact plan. Thank you for reading the list)

Then everything went not according to the plan at all!

I would like to start with showing the pictures of the dismantled cabinet.

This is my favourite picture

Let's continue if you are still reading. I sanded the cabinet first, and then painted it right away with the oil enamel. I do not know why. I would prefer not to admit that, but the pictures would give me away :)

This is the back. I coated the inner side of the cabinet with the enamel and stained the outer side.

Then I made a shelf and stained it.

Then suddenly I remembered that I had a plan, so I started working on the patches.

I patched the door too (there was a hole there)

Then I made new bottom and new drawer:

I will admit that I got some help with the handle :)

Then I spray-painted the cabinet with a matte paint. By the way, it stuck to the oil enamel well. I think it worked out for me that I brush-painted the surface first as my skill level of spray-painting was rather poor.

I painted the door and glued a piece of tapestry on it:

I installed the shelf, then finished the bottom and glued the lid on the top:

I hung the door (ok, I admit that I got some help here too, as I was out of inspiration at that point :)

A few details:

As you can see, the cabinet is far from perfect. I achieved my goal to make it usable, though. Now it lives in my home. It does not look new, but that is acceptable for a cottage style cabinet :)

It was my first experience. If I've known what I know now, I would do it differently and changed all wood instead of patching it.

Here is "Before and After" picture: