The Top 6 Tools You’ll Need for Upcycling Furniture
With many people experiencing financial difficulties over the last decade, there has been a movement towards taking old objects and repurposing them or fixing them up so that they can be used again.
Finding a discarded piece of furniture outside on the street can be turned into a lovely piece with a little loving care. Items like this can be turned into something new and useful, giving something destined for the dump a new lease of life.
Upcycling has become all the rage these days because it enables people to not only make something that might have been old and discarded several more years of usefulness, but it also is a way to make a bit of extra money. Both of these are great ways to combat the financial crunch going on right now.
Before you decided to go out of and look for an old piece of furniture to fix up you will need to have some basic tools to work with in addition to being creative in the ways in which you intend to repurpose the furniture. I may not be able to help you with your creativity, but these are the tools I would recommend having on hand.
1. Paint stripper
You will need this to remove the layers of paint on a piece of old furniture. A thicker stripper is needed for multiple layers of paint while a thinner stripper is all you need for dealing with stains. You have to get that paint off first so that you have a better idea of what you have to work with.
2. Some decent power tools
The two most important power tools I have found I needed were a power sander and a great saw. The power sander will save you time when trying to smooth out a piece of furniture after stripping the paint from it. I also think that a decent chain saw helps immensely. It may seem like overkill, but it makes easy work of big pieces of furniture you might want to cut in half or remove the legs from. You can also use the saw for handling some landscaping needs to it really fulfills a few jobs. My 450 Husqvarna going strong after years and I swear by it as one of my essential tools.
3. Sandpaper
While a power sander will help deal with the large areas on a piece of furniture, you will still need some good pieces of sandpaper. You will need several types of grit to handle different jobs that the power sander won’t be able to cope with, like in the joints of the furniture and any smaller parts like scrolling on the feet of a chair leg.
4. Stains and finishes
You can choose between finishes that you wipe on with a rag or ones that you brush on. The main difference is that if you are new to working with stains and upcycling furniture, you may have a difficult time keeping the thicker finishes from running because of how long they take to dry. Wipe-on finishes on the other hand dry much faster and you won’t have to worry about any drips or runs in the finish.
5. Paintbrushes
Having a good selection of different paintbrushes is essential. Wide brushes are needed for finishing jobs quickly and smoothly, while much smaller brushes with finer tips are more useful for painting small details on to whatever piece of furniture you are working on.
6. Cloths
You will find that you can never have enough cloths. Don’t waste money on going to the big box store to buy them, however: instead, just recycle old shirts that are made of lint free cotton. These work just as well and will save you money.
Verdict
Upcycling furniture is a great way to save money while making a house more beautiful. Taking an older piece of furniture and giving it a new purpose shows a reverence for the craft of furniture-making while also making something old, new again.