If you’re fed up with your current furniture, or it’s looking in need of a new lease of life, rather than throwing it away and buying something new, why not give life to old furniture? There are plenty of ways in which you can revive old furniture, from projects involving a spot of DIY, to ways you can outsource them to experts. Read on to discover our top revival tricks to give new life to old furniture.
Give furniture a new coat of paint
Giving old furniture a new coat of paint can freshen it up and completely transform the way it looks. It’s a good revival trick to use if you’ve changed the colour scheme in your home and want a different colour of furniture that will fit in better. It also works well as a way to update your kitchen cupboards without having to have a complete new re-fit. Check out this useful guide to painting furniture to find out what you’ll need to get started, or try spray paint for a quick and easy option.
Paint drawers or doors
If you don’t want to go to the bother of re-painting an entire piece of furniture, why not just paint the drawers or doors? As well as being quicker to do, it can create a lovely design feature to have a couple of drawers or doors on a sideboard painted in a contrasting colour.
Have it re-upholstered
In the case of a chair, sofa or footstool, you can give new life to old furniture pieces by having them re-upholstered. Although it’s possible to do it yourself, for a slick and neat finish, specialist companies such as South West Upholstery are skilled in re-upholstering furniture. What’s more, it’s a lovely way of putting any favourite fabrics you have to good use, or to enable an older chair or sofa to be updated to match newer pieces you have.
Give old furniture an uplift with wallpaper
Why not give new life to old furniture by giving it an uplift with wallpaper? Wallpaper might be designed for walls, but it’s by no means the only way to use it. As our previous post shows, wallpaper and wallpaper panels can be used creatively with furniture in a variety of ways.
In the case of a chest of drawers, wallpaper can be used to paper the sides of the drawers, so you get a flash of pattern or colour as you open them. It can also be used on the back of shelving units to liven up a plain old unit, or even on the front of wardrobe doors to create a whole new look.
Update fixtures and fittings to give new life to old furniture
Sometimes it’s the little changes that can make a big difference in giving new life to old furniture. If a cabinet, sideboard or chest of drawers has had the same handles for years, why not consider investing in some new ones? Swapping plain handles or knobs to more decorative options, or changing them from wood to metal, can enhance the appearance of the piece and update it nicely to suit your current style.
Make it into something new
If you’re a dab hand at DIY and are feeling creative, you could get out your tools and have a go at transforming a piece of furniture into something completely new. Maybe you fancy taking the legs off a sideboard, cutting a table down to make it smaller, transforming a cabinet into a bar cart or making a footstool into a pet bed. Whatever you fancy doing, try and think outside the box and have fun upcycling and giving new life to old furniture!
Image credits: Shutterstock
(Disclosure: Collaborative post)
143
Some fab ideas here- I love to spray paint stuff! Such an easy way to makeover small items too.
Thank you Rachel, for the ideas! Gonna try soon. I hope it turns out to be a masterpiece of my home.
If you want to elongate the life of your old furniture or protect the new one, you need to professionally clean them each year.
Accessories are important, but furniture can make a statement for your home. A good sofa or armchair is one of the must-have. But thank you, Rachel, for other points!