The trend for finding old furniture and ‘upcycling’ it has been around for a while now, but it shows no signs of slowing. This is a positive thing. Upcycling means that fewer items of furniture are being dumped into landfills, plus it’s a great creative outlet for those who want to express their artistic side. Some people have even taken to it so well that they’ve built entire businesses around it.
Yet upcycling isn’t always as easy as it might look. You can’t take an old piece of furniture, put a new coat of paint on it, and expect it to look wonderful. There are many other things you need to do to get started. If you want to try your hand at upcycling, here are some useful tips for you. As you go along, you’ll find what works for you and what doesn’t, ensuring you can make some pieces that are perfectly unique. Also, here is our top-recommended online seller of high-quality chair feet.
Preparation
If you find you have an old chest of drawers, a chair, or something else that you don’t want to throw out or sell but that needs to be upcycled to fit in with your home and be useful, you will probably be excited to get started. Unfortunately, this can mean you rush into things and you don’t put any preparation into your upcycling project. The upshot of this is that most of the time, the results aren’t as good as you had wanted, and you might not even get finished because you’re not sure how to achieve the look you had imagined.
If you put in a good amount of preparation, this won’t happen. Start by working out the design you want to put on your furniture. Next, you’ll need to decide what tools you’re going to need; is it something that only needs some paint and brushes, or do you need welding machines to get the desired outcome? Finally, you’ll need a plan on how to do the work. Most of the time, you’ll need to strip away any paint or varnish, fix any broken parts, and sand the piece before you can even think about anything else. Make sure you’re aware of exactly what you need to do.
Research
If you’re stuck for ideas about how you want the piece to look once you upcycle it, you’ll need to ensure you have time put aside for research. Just jumping in and hoping that it will look good when you’re done will work some of the time, but it won’t work all of the time, and to ensure things look good, and you aren’t wasting your time and money, research is crucial.
You might, for example, look into different eras to create something that matches a specific time period. This can be a good idea if your furniture itself is old or antique and you can make it look like it’s meant to look. Or perhaps you want the piece to blend in with your décor – in that case, this is what you’ll need to look into.
Protection
There is one important element that many people, including some artistic experts, will forget all about, and that’s the final stage of your project. You’ll need to make sure that you protect your items in the right way to prevent any damage from occurring that would undo all your hard work.
Protection can come in many forms, but when it comes to furniture, it most often means using varnish, wax, or some other covering so that not only will it continue to look good, but you can also use it for many years to come.