Tips & Tricks

I was think the other day that I should share some tips and tricks I use when refinishing furniture.

1. Wooden dresser drawers won't slide open easily? Just use some soap or a candle! Wooden dressers that are old (which are the best if you ask me) tend to become hard to slide open after a long time. If you rub a bar of soap or a candle on the drawer tracks, it will allow the drawers to slide open easily. The wax lubricates the track and makes it easy to open. We used this trick on my dresser in my room when we got it! Bonus: it will even make it smell better.

2. Hammer + Flat head screw driver = no more paint on the rim. Have you ever started painting and have the paint pool in the rim of the can? I hate that and sometimes it prevents you from getting a good reseal on the can. We had a can of paint dry out due to this issue. If you hammer the flat head in four spots on the rim, it will create little holes in the rim. Then, the paint will drip back in the can and won't pool. And it only takes a couple of seconds. Here are some pictures of me using this trick:

 This is what the hole looks like:

3. Wood stain pen. When we stained our floors, we found out that the maker of the stain also sold a pen in the same stain color. We bought it immediately because we knew it would be great for scratches and touch ups. Little did we know that we would use it all the time. It is great to touch up ay wood product! Here is a similar one to the one we use that I found on Google:

We used it to touch up this mid-century modern desk we sold in the booth:

4. Spray paint. I love spray paint. It is great to use on hardware. Some old hardware can look drab as old, rusty metal. I have found that if you spray it white or silver it looks vintage, but fresh. It just adds a pop to the piece. Here are some pieces I have spray painted the hardware on:

5. Oil-based paint. It will stick to almost any surface well. You can buy glossy oil-based paint (which is what we get) and it will create a beautiful shine on the furniture. Oil-based paint lasts and looks great. We use the Rustoleum protective enamel. I started using this because of Natty By Design, a blog I follow.

Hope these tips and tricks help in your home project! If you ever have any questions for me or want some recommendations, please comment!