Thrift Shops are perfect places to find solid hardwood furniture that just needs a little care and can be transformed into a piece that makes a large impact in your home.
At the Bissell Thrift Shop, we receive many vintage small furniture pieces that are great for refinishing as a beginner. This cocktail bar is made from hardwood veneered plywood. With veneer you need to be careful you don’t sand too deep, however is still transformable.
Here is the cocktail bar before any changes, it is approximately 2’ x 1’ and 3’ tall. The finish was scratched, and the tone of the stain was too orange.
When you are searching for furniture to refinish, you want to look for items that the wood itself hasn’t been stained. With this piece, the top and sides look really worn, but the wood itself was not stained, and that makes it possible to refinish. If there is a lot of staining, you can look into whitewashing or painting if needed. But with this piece, we really wanted to just give it new life and bring out the wood’s natural beauty.
NOW FOR THE FUN PART, LET’S GET STARTED.
What you will need:
Screwdrivers (matching all the hardware on your furniture)
Container or ziplock bag to store all the hardware while working on your project
Mild dish soap, a small cleaning brush (a toothbrush works great), and a soft cloth
Hand sanding block or electric sander with (5) 150 grit sandpaper discs
Small sanding block with 220 grit sandpaper
(2) Spray cans of clear varnish (preference to varnish spray, however, you can use varnish paint, just follow instructions on varnish carefully and sand between coats)
Step One: Disassemble
Remove all the handles and hardware, dissembling all the doors and top counter. This helps ensure all the pieces are sanded and varnished evenly. Take special care to not strip any of the screws and take note of any hardware that is broken and needs replacing.
Keep all your hardware together in a container or Ziplock bag, keeping the same hardware maintains the piece’s value.
Also, recommend taking photos of the different screws and when they go, its easy to think you will remember how to put it back together. However, everything starts to look the same after some time has passed.
Step Two: Cleaning
It is important to give all the nooks a good scrub with a mild detergent. It is best to use just a small amount of dish soap in a large bucket, as you don’t want any residue that could interact with your varnish. A toothbrush and soft cloth make this a quick project. Then let sit until completely dry.
Step Three: Sanding
With wooden veneer, you need to be very careful not to sand too deep, or you will see the layers in the veneer, and it will become impossible to fix without purchasing and adhering to the new veneer.
Tools for this are very simple. You can hand sand a project like this, however, if you have a small electric sander you can turn the speed down and it will help speed up this step.
Using 150 grit sandpaper, carefully sand each surface, taking care to only sand off the old veneer and not more of the wood then you need to.
Use of a face mask is required when sanding.
Once you have sanded all the flat surfaces, the edges become sharp. Take a moment and using the 220 grit sanding block run over all the edges to ensure they are smooth and even.
Step Four: Stain (Optional)
Often trim work is done in a different type of wood than the body of the furniture, it keeps costs down. However, after you sand your new furniture, it becomes overly obvious and this different wood takes away from the value of your piece.
The good thing is this is an easy fix, using a small cloth or sponge rub down your trim work with a matching stain. Take special care to only stain the lighter trim work. Let dry.
Step Four: Varnish
With your furniture still dissembled, now it’s time to add the final varnish. Take special care to follow the instructions on the product you use, some allow for quick layers, others require a longer wait period between.
Using a spray can form of varnish makes this work faster, you don’t need to sand between coats and clean a brush after. Below is the varnish used on this cocktail bar. Highly recommend the satin finish, it leaves beautiful light layers and you can apply top coats every 10 minutes.
When you are varnishing, make sure you are working outside or in a well-ventilated area, use of a face mask is also required. The spray may travel quite far, so also try to work in an area you don’t mind if there is overspray.
Let dry as per your varnish’s directions, highly recommend not rushing this step, let the varnish dry for longer then needed. The finished product will be much nicer as a result!
Step Five: Reassemble
Just like that, you are now ready to put it all back together. Taking special care to not strip any of the screws, reassemble your furniture and enjoy!
The texture and striping on this cocktail bar now stand out and have the charm it once did.
