Antique China Cabinet Makeover

Blog post

Today’s Tip Brought To You By Rehab 2 Fab Designs: How to repair a broken leg.

We all love those old pieces with the dove tail drawers that were built lovingly to last. It was a time when products were manufactured to last at least your lifetime because people worked hard for the very little money they made. Today, the story is not told the same. Products are mass produced as quickly as possible to turn as much profit in the least amount of time. The result is a multitude of things that don’t last. From furniture to appliances… phones and computers… even to automobiles. And as a result, the landfills are full with trash from tossed aside items from every household. It’s a sad story indeed. Here at Rehab 2 Fab Designs, we are proud to say we help decrease waste by saving furniture that would otherwise be tossed. Is it a lot of work? Absolutely. Is it worth the time invested? Not typically. But are we proud of the work we do? You bet your booty we are. 

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Old furniture not only has a lot of character, it also comes with a lot of blemishes and problems. But with the right tools, these problems can be repaired and you can restore and create a beautiful piece that will be loved once again and bring pride to the owners. 

This antique china cabinet was purchased to be restored by us. It’s been sitting in the corner of our shop for months now. We finally drug her out to see what we had to work with. She did indeed have those handmade dove tail drawers. Unfortunately, time had not been good to her. She had a leg that was split in half, a broken ball on her leg, a cast iron wheel that had fallen out from the split leg, peeling veneer and her drawer seams were pulling apart. Vicente went to work on the drawer seams first. 

Using Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue, Vicente glued the drawer seams back together. He then used a clamp to hold the drawers sides together while he nailed them in place using our Ryobi Airstrike Nail Gun. 

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Next, Pro Finisher Wood Filler was used to fill and repair missing and damaged veneer. She was also missing a large side off of one of those beautiful chunky legs (a feature that drew me to the piece to begin with… y’all know I’m a sucker for good legs). The leg was repaired with the same wood filler by thickly applying it and molding it in the ball shape. You don’t have to worry about making it pretty and smooth when you first apply it as you’re just trying to build the missing portion. Once dry, you sand and smooth and shape the lump to match the other leg. Voilá… a brand new leg. 

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After all the repairs were made, she was sanded completely down and cleaned thoroughly with TSP. Once this was one, she was primed using Zinser Oil Based Primer.

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Once she was ready for paint I **finally** decided on colors. If you’ve followed along with the progress of this piece, you know I struggled picking a finish. Well actually, I had a finish in mind initially but once my hubby primed the whole piece for me [[including the legs]], I had to pick a new finish bc I originally wanted natural legs. I tried multiple colors and combinations of colors but just wasn’t feeling any of them. Until I opened the can of Wise Owl Paint in Northern Lights. (Get your Wise Owl paint here http://rehab2fabdesigns.com/shop) I said to myself “now that… is a color that speaks to me”. You see, I love bold, vibrant colors and Northern Lights is definitely bold and vibrant. To soften it up and give it a little dimension, I blended some Snow Owl with it. I painted the inside of the cabinet in Snow Owl bc I loved the stark contrast with the Northern Lights. I then used a vinyl stencil that I cut to paint a design on the inside back of the china cabinet to pull the look together. 

I left the refinishing of the legs for last bc I was still dreaming about those natural wood legs but just didn’t want to strip them again to remove the primer. Instead, I broke out the gel stain bc I knew it had the ability to cover up the primer while still allowing for a wood stain look. And it did just that! For these legs, I used Minwax Gel Stain and used a sponge to just dab the stain on the whole bottom portion of the China cabinet to ensure I got good coverage over the white primer. Typically, I would wipe back stain but since this piece had primer on it, I didn’t wipe it back. 

I don’t know about you all but I think the end result is a piece that is bold, vibrant, one of a kind, and bonus, I still got to keep my stained legs. Win:Win. 

Hope you guys like her as much as I do! Let me know if you have any questions. 

Xoxo

Tyler 

Rehab 2 Fab Designs

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