When all you own is a hammer…

When all you own is a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail. Abraham Maslow

After the floods I had some pine furniture which had become discoloured. I headed off to the local hardware, only to remember they were completely under, so I travelled another two suburbs over, same luck. How anyone was supposed to repair their houses without hardware, I’ll never know. After finally driving for 45 minutes, I found one which was operational. I stocked up on furniture oil, and sand paper.

My first experiment was with an old chest my mother had tried to throw out many times, for whatever reason. I open the lid, half of which promptly fell off. After precariously balancing it back on the nails, I sanded it down and applied the first coat. I resisted the urge to apply the second coat too soon, and followed the instructions on the tin by waiting 8 hours, giving it a light sand and then applying another thin coat. I was very pleased with the results and thought, ‘I have ¾ of a tin left, what else can I slap some oil on?’

Furniture Oil

I thought, ‘I’ll strip the paint off my pine chair and stain that’. Of course, it turned out this chair had been repainted numerous times and I’m still trying to get all the layers off.

too many layers of paint

I decided to restore a wardrobe that was left by previous owners in out house. The surface of this wardrobe was covered in asbestos-flavoured veneer, which came off in such as fine mist that I regretted not having a face mask. I covered a broken front panel with some pretty fabric and lined the draws with vintage 1960s and 1970s wall paper. I felt it looked quite spiffy, and was a fraction of the cost and weight of an Ikea flat-pack.

1960s & 1970s wallpaper

Hint: The idea of dousing paint thinner on yourself to clean off the oil sound too dangerous? Try some anti-dandruff shampoo.

Still a waterline but looks better