“If you don’t have hopes of keeping your hand-me-down furniture in pristine, original condition for future generations, there are other options to help it blend with your modern decor.”
Everyone knows the old adage, “They don’t make things like they used to.” I found this to be especially true when we built our new home a few years ago. Within the past four years, we’ve had problems with our new appliances, new furniture, and even our new windows.
Most things, including technology, seem nearly disposable in their creation. That’s why it’s more important than ever to protect and care for family heirlooms or quality pieces. Here are some DIY projects to do that!
Protecting the Value of Your Heirloom Furniture
If you want to keep furniture or other pieces in original and good condition, always keep them treated and polished. However, for some pieces, if not done correctly, this could mean a build-up on the surface that could degrade the finish.
If you decide to restore your furniture, consider contacting an expert first. Sometimes fixing imperfections, such as flaking or fading spots, can do more harm than good — especially to the overall value of the piece.
Even polishing the patina off of the surface of bronze, brass, or copper hardware can lower the value of the piece.
Blending Heirloom Furniture into Your Decor
If you can’t keep hand-me-down furniture in pristine, original condition for future generations, there are other options to help it blend with your modern decor.
Consider reupholstering old chairs or painting them to match your design scheme. Sometimes displaying a piece is more important than having it collect dust in an attic.
Recently, we found an old desk on Facebook Marketplace that was hand-constructed and had a ton of character not found in modern pieces. We decided to chalk paint it and keep it on hand for my daughter’s upcoming room makeover.
How Chalk Paint Can Change a Piece But Not Its Character
Using chalk paint on your furniture is a great way to match old pieces to your current decor while preserving the piece’s original character. Very little prep is needed. Chalk paint hides flaws, and you have the option on “antiquing” a piece to make it look old again.
If you want to learn the technique of chalk painting, there are posts and YouTube videos that will help you get started.
There is usually no sanding involved — unless you distress a piece. All you need to do is clean it before you paint. Add a few coats of chalk paint, a coat or two of furniture wax, and you’re done.
You can even chalk paint modern pieces if you’ve decided to redecorate your home. Even furniture that has wood veneer instead of solid wood can be chalk painted!
Once you get more comfortable with the application of chalk paint, you can experiment with mixing colors, adding different wax colors, distressing, crackling, and more techniques to really up your decor game.
Chalk painting a piece takes about a weekend from start to finish. It’s a great project to get your house ready for spring cleaning in a few weeks!
Comment below and tell us what piece of furniture you have that you would like to try to chalk paint!
