How do you normally start when you’re thinking about redesigning and redecorating your home? If the first thing you do is pick up a brochure or head online to start picking out your new furniture and buying pieces, we might suggest you’re going about the process completely backwards. Sorry!
We would recommend a slightly different approach, focusing more on what you already have. You can achieve some incredible results by refreshing old furniture and giving old pieces a brand new lease of life. This can in turn inject some much needed freshness into your rooms! Here are a few tips for saving old furnishings from the scrap heap and turning them into something you’ll love to feature prominently in your home.
Firstly, don’t worry about making it perfect. The finish on your old piece of furniture may be a lot less pristine that it was originally, but that’s certainly nothing bad. If you don’t want to put it through a proper restoration process, you can just enjoy a shabby chic finish on your piece instead. You might even distress it intentionally for a real rustic feel. This is the perfect way to disguise imperfections and make them into a feature.
Paint is going to be one of your primary weapons on this mission. Tackling an ugly old piece and trying to turn it into something attractive may not be easy, but with a fresh coat of brightly coloured paint you’d be shocked at what a difference you can make. Spray paint can be particularly effective in unusual colours, and again you don’t have to focus on getting a perfect finish. Try taking a tired-looking vintage piece and colouring it so it takes on a completely polar opposite identity.
If you’re feeling confident you might want to look at customising your furniture too, in the process of salvaging old and damaged pieces especially. Sometimes you may inherit a desk without all of its drawers, a chair with a missing leg, or perhaps something with a lot of potential that’s being ruined by just one particularly ugly element. Don’t be afraid to amputate old-fashioned or unnecessary parts from your furniture if it helps you style it the way you want to. For example, taking a vintage desk top and replacing its thick legs with much thinner, more sophisticated ones and then painting it a vivid colour could be the perfect way to revamp it.