Restoring And Repairing A Mid Century Modern Style Sideboard

while browsing through my Facebook feed recently I came across a post about a sideboard that was about to be thrown away I really liked the look of it so I got in touch with the owner who was kind enough to drop it off at my house and I paid 20 pounds for it which is about 25 dollars it wasn't actually in too bad shape considering its age it must be at least 40 or 50 years old I expect most of the unit is made of veneered particle board the finish was looking really dull and there were a few water stains heat marks scratches and some small areas of chipped veneer the big surprise for me was that the drawer runners one of which was missing were just soft wood and stapled to the carcass no screws and very little glue certainly not built to last I decided I'd make some hard wood drawer runners for it so they'd be more hard-wearing and when I removed the old one as I was surprised at just how easy they were to take off the drawers look to be made from solid sapele except for the fronts which is again veneer chipboard but the drawers are pretty nice they're built with dovetail joints and they felt pretty solid I needed to get the sideboard outside to start work on it as there'd be some sanding involved and that wasn't easy this thing is pretty heavy I got started by making the new drawer runners I carefully measured up and wrote down the measurements of the distance from the bottom to each drawer runner so that I could later install the new runners in the same positions then I measured up all of the old drawer runners with my calipers and they all measured around nine millimeters by 11 millimeters I'd use some scraps of oak to make the new runners I first ripped it down on the table saw just to get a nice straight clean edge on one side then I adjusted the fence to 11 millimeters and made a cut that measured just over 11 millimeters when I checked with the calipers which I was happy with because they were better off to big than too small and also I figured that the original draw runners would have worn down a bit since they would have been installed many years ago so I went ahead and ripped the rest of the pieces then I adjusted the fence to 9 millimeters and ripped all of the pieces to the right thickness I took the new runners and the old runners over to the miter saw and then I cut one end of the new runners just to get nice clean edges then I sneezed and then I cut the new runners to the same length as the old runners before fitting the new runners I needed to scrape off all of the old glue so that the glue would adhere properly to the new runners and the sides I'd use some scrap pieces of wood to make spacers which I could use to position the draw runners at the right height and consistently with one another so I cut some spaces out of some scrap wood to the dimensions that I'd written down earlier I've made my first mistake of the day I was very careful to measure the height of each drawer runner but what I didn't measure was the distance that the draw runners were from the front so what I'm going to do is reinsert the old drawer runners using the staples to locate the holes and then I can measure the map eventually I found the original position of one of the runners by lining up the staples with the old holes and then I could measure up the distance from the front with the calipers and then I knew that I'd need to position each runner 20 millimeters from the front to attach the runners I positioned them on top of the spaces and used wood glue and Brad nails at first I could then check that the drawer would fit okay inside the carcass and if it didn't I could pull them off before the glue had a chance to set up and reposition them if required the first drawer seemed to fit just right with a small and even gap at the top and on either side so I came back to add screws to secure the runners permanently I was obviously careful to choose a short screw that wouldn't Pierce all the way through the sides of the unit I drilled a pilot hole so that I would split the wood then I can to sunk the hole and added the screws so far so good now to add the next drawer I used the same method again then I added the top drawer again and the middle drawer and this time the gap between them appeared to be too big the gap between the first and the second drawer is too big it's probably about three millimeters there and by sliding in the final draw it goes in but I can tell that this one should be slightly higher so I'm going to quickly remove the runners that I've just added and reposition them this time I'd use a couple of shims which were around two millimeters thick underneath the spaces to lift the height of the drawer runners consistently on each side this time the gap between the two drawers looked much better and I'd double-check that there was still space at the bottom for the bottom drawer then I added the final runners in the same way as before by nailing checking and then screwing and the bottom drawer turned out okay first time so that was the drawers fitted now to work on bringing that finish back to life I started by applying heat with an iron to the water marks with a tea towel placed in between the iron and the top of the unit and I had to be careful here not to apply too much heat which could potentially loosen up the glue on the veneer this method often works to remove lights water stains and it worked really well on the sapele chest of drawers that I restored in a fairly recent video I'll put a link to that in the description box below if you're interested but I didn't see much of an improvement this time perhaps because the stains were quite old so I went straight to sanding instead and I decided to do it by hand as I didn't want to risk sanding through the veneer I started with 80 grit to remove the old finish and then sanded again at 120 grit i sanded with the direction of the grain at all times you can see here that I'm using a Bulldog clip on one of those Thrall runners that's because I drove the screw in too far and it split the runner so I added some wood glue and the clip is there acting as a clamp I was too lazy to remove the handles from the cupboard doors as I knew I could easily just sand around them although I did take the time to remove the handles from the drawers when sanding those I used a brush to wipe off most of the dust and then came back with a damp cloth to remove the rest of it I used superior Danish oil to bring the finish back to life this stuff contains varnish so it'll be a bit more hard wearing than boiled linseed oil which I often use I applied it pretty generously and rubbed it in with a cotton cloth I let it soak in for about half an hour and then wiped off any excess then I applied a light second coat of the Danish oil I brought the unit back indoors and let it dry overnight and the next day I added some candle wax to the runners this would help the drawers to slide more easily and it made a big difference finally I added some clear BRE wax to the finish just to give it a bit more protection and a nice smooth finish after the coat of wax had dried for a couple of hours I buffed it to a nice Sheen with another clean rag most of the stains and marks are a lot less visible and the scratches have almost disappeared and the finish looks a lot nicer here it is in its new home in my dining room I've already filled it up with junk and I like it a lot I spent probably 3 to 4 hours on this project and I think that was time well spent hopefully this sideboard will be in use for many years to come

Channel: Rag 'n' Bone Brown

Views: 212,068

Rating: 4.912961 out of 5

Keywords: woodwork, rag, 'n', bone, brown, keith, salvaged, reclaimed, wood, make, making, sideboard, mid, century, modern, retro, vintage, furniture, restoring, restoration, repair, repairing, furniture restoration, mid century modern, furniture repair, vintage furniture, how to refinish furniture, upcycle, furniture upcycling, mid century sideboard, sideboard restoration, retro furniture, ercol, g plan, stain removal, heat marks, water marks, water stains, remove, remove water marks, remove heat marks

Id: BQplz8YP59U

Length: 11min 36sec (696 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 11 2016