Portfolio of commisioned refurbished work

Possibly one of my favourite projects to date. I did pay a little more than I normally would just because it seemed like an ideal piece to work on, there was just so much upside. I really liked the classic midcentury flared feet, the styling/lines were nicely understated making it almost a blank canvas and the dimensions were great, although at 2.3m wide it was going to dominate the workshop. With that in mind, I decided to tackle this project in roughly two halves. Firsly, I wanted to try and get the actual cabinet sanded and refinished so I could get it out of the workshop and then concentrate on the doors and drawers. Started by sanding down the cabinet, which had a lovely veneer and the majority of the carcass had plenty of solid teak which came up a treat when sended and oiled.

Next I tackled the legs which had to be striped first with a scraper and then sanded by hand, again these were solid teak and looked amazing when refinished. Of the 8 legs, at least half of them were at least a little wobbly. I considered removing the frame of the legs in order to get the legs off and reseat them but that proved to be stuck fast and didn’t want to risk compromising the bottom. In the end, I was able to remove the entire bottom part of the cabinet to reveal the fixing points for the legs on the inside of the cabinet as seen in the picture. Removing them still seemed more risk than it was worth so I decided to try adding 2 more screws per leg which essentially doubled up on what was already there. That really made all the legs nice and stable, so was then able to reassemble the cabinet and finish with oil.

After that, it was time for the drawers which I decided on a single colour to provide a solid foundation for the doors, but firstly because I had chosen not to go with handles or knobs in the middle of the drawers as they had been originally I had to fill the old holes with dowels and filler before priming and trying a few different neutral colours before settling on a greyish blue. Fancied using some top pulls for the handles to modernise the look and had originally tested some more angler silver ones but actually found the black curved ones worked a little better. Had a cut a small recess in the top to make them fit flush otherwise they would have rubbed on the opening and also the recess made them ever so slightly more secure.

The theme for the doors was probably the first thing I’d decided on before starting the project which was one bold colour and 3 other neutrals to balance it. Was a straight forwarding painting job with a few coat of clear varnish for extra protection. Also changed the hinges and experimented with a few different handles before settling on the copper finish.

Was asked to refurb/modernise an old family piece of furniture for a friend. The brief wasn’t too extensive, but I was given 3 colours to work with, so I spent a day or 2 letting some ideas marinate. In the end, I thought due to the sliding doors it would be good to go with a chevron pattern.

I had originally liked the thought of going with a converging pattern, but thought I’d run it by the person who was going to live with it, and to help them visualise the idea I mocked up an image of the 4 basic options all chevrons facing right, left, converging and diverging. In the end they perfered the divergent so I made some calculations to make sure the arrows were evenly spaced and sized and away I went. I changed the blue they had choosen in the end as the original was a little cold for the rest of the pallette.

Also added a touch of detailing with the laser engraver. Both the friend and I were happy with the final result.

It’s always a tantalising prospect (for me at least) to be given the opportunity to breathe new life into a piece of old furniture, especially when it’s oozing with potential.

It was another commissioned piece and was dropped off by the clients and they wanted it modernising, they also wanted to get rid of the glass door and shelves. After hanging around with it for a couple of days I threw out some ideas and got stuck in.

Firstly I dealt with the bottom of the unit trimmed away the base and sides to be able to add some hairpin legs which I sprayed yellow which was to be the feature colour of the unit.

For the top part, I replaced the 2 glass shelves with plywood ones and added a vinyl feature to the back of the drop-down compartment and to the top open section. Trasformation complete…

This was one of my first commissioned pieces and it was a big one at that, so I was a little nervous being entrusted with something that was going to take such a prominent place in someone’s home.

In the end it was a real pleasure, the clients were great to work with and very receptive to ideas. They provided a few colours based on pieces of furniture, art and an amazing stained glass window (see pictures); all from the room the sideboard was going to live in. It did leave me with a few more colours than I would ordinarily work with, but it was pulled together with a neutral off white at the top, middle and one of the legs.

I always like to discover the variation of door mechanisms and hinges that these mid-century pieces throw up! Really enjoyable project.