Re-doing furniture for your college apartment can sound daunting at first, especially for those who don’t have experience with it. But there are a number of things that you can do to fix-up older pieces, broken or heavily used furniture, or thrift store or garage sale finds that are deceivingly simple. Even those who have never done anything like this before, you can find a small way to bring old furniture to life. Here are a few helpful tips for re-doing furniture for your college apartment.
When re-doing furniture for the first time, you may not want to step in too deep with a project, so don’t be afraid to start small. Any wood pieces like dressers, side tables, dining tables, or desks can be made into an entirely new table with a wood stain. Stains are a paint that you use specifically for wood surfaces that darken the color of the wood. If you find a desk that you like but it’s in a light wood that you don’t like, you can buy it and stain to the color you want. This is as simple as painting and it lasts as long as 10-20 years!
You can get a wood stain at any hardware store and they come in many different colors. You can find a deep, rich brown or a red-toned to make your piece look like cherry wood. Just pick whatever matches your other pieces and it’ll look like you bought an expensive set at a department store.
This re-do may be a little more advanced, but it can still be done. When you have a chair or ottoman that you like the style of, but it has an outdated fabric, don’t pass it by! You can make it into a whole new piece by recovering it with new fabric. Furniture fabric is specific materials, so that it is durable enough for constant use, and it can be found at fabric and craft stores. You can start re-doing furniture by beginning with an old dining chair that has a flower print with a solid color vinyl, velvet for something soft, or a simple material in a neutral color to tone it down. Whatever you do, you can turn something old into something new. Some may require some sewing, but there are tutorials online that show you the step by step process, and can help you out a lot.
Hint: dining chairs often come off the chair and are simply stapled on the bottom, so these require no sewing! These are especially easy, so if you want to ease yourself into re-doing furniture, start with these chairs.
Just because something is broken, doesn’t mean it’s time to through it away. You can re-do furniture that has been broken and make it last decades. Sturdy wood furniture is meant to last, so if you have good wooden pieces, you can fix them right up and make them last. Usually, the first thing to break is the arms or legs of chairs. These things are also some of the simplest areas to fix. A broken arm on a chair can be put back with another piece of wood. paint the wood to match and nail it together. Simple as that!
I have done this with an ottoman that I found by the side of the road. All I had to do was to nail a piece of wood to hold the arm to the side of the chair and it was good as new. I then recovered the seat with new fabric, and it was a gorgeous piece of furniture for my apartment. So, don’t toss good pieces, work on them to fix them and you can have a long lasting piece.
This is the simplest way to re-do wood furniture, by far. Stain is similar, but it actually changes the color of the wood. Paint will sit on top and tend to flake off, so if you like the rustic look, you will like this. You can paint your dresser a bright color and make it the focal point of the room, or change the color of the bed frame to give it a modern vibe. Paint can are relatively cheap and you can get them at any hardware store. They have a huge number of colors, and can even mix some together to get the exact shade you want.
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