How to Restore an Old Shelf for a New Look

How to Restore an Old Shelf - Finished Shelf

While on my quest to clean up my workshop, I stumbled on an old shelf that had been tossed on the woodpile, and subsequently buried. I found it in several pieces. “Hmmmm….” I said. I had been thinking about a shelf over my desk recently, “Maybe this will do the trick until the time comes to make a fancier one.” And what a project to present as “How To Restore an Old Shelf”!

How to Restore an Old Shelf – Preparation

How to Restore an Old Shelf - The pieces to start with
Pieces as found in the woodpile

I assessed the damage situation, I decided the mutilation wasn’t as bad as it could have been, any dings, screw holes and splintered wood may enhance the aestetics.

Laying the pieces on the workbench, you must first choose what the final product is to be. I opted for a lighter color, and wanted the grain to pop a bit better. For this to work, I needed to remove the existing, darker finish.


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If you find yourself this far and are wondering where you can get a piece to refinish, you can certainly start from scratch with scrap wood.  If you're a beginner, go out and get yourself some plans for some simple projects, like those in Max's Woodworking or the multitude of plans in Ted's Woodworking.

If you have a planer on hand, it makes short work of old finishes. The wood was generally in good shape so a couple of passes through the planer on each side got most of the work done. Moving on from the planer to the sanding. The majority of the sanding was on the rounded edges. Particularly difficult was the groove that runs along the back of the shelf, something that is meant to hold dishes up dishes for display. Creative uses of different sandpaper grits, a couple different sized dowels and some spray adhesives helped clean up and smooth out the groove.

Staining and Finish

Next came the finishing step. Since this was a project that I wanted to whip out quickly, I didn’t fuss over the final finish. I ended up using an American Walnut stain. It’s actually darker than the original, but some tests on some similar pine scraps looked good, as long as I didn’t allow it to soak for long, not leeting the color go very dark. Some touch ups after the initial coat dried. Be careful here, as double staining areas can make for some darker areas, I used just a rag with very little stain, and was careful to blend with the surrounding stain. Then a few coats of satin polyurethane (water based). I did a light sanding in between coats with 400 grit paper, and the final coat I used a flannel rag. I’ve learned that a flannel rag, rubbed somewhat vigorously, produces just enough friction and heat to put a nice polish on the final coat, especially if the first and second coats were done carefully, no drips or misses.

Restored Shelf is Complete!

It’s then a matter of screwing the supports back in place. Oh, and some light sanding where the glue is going to hit to remove the polyurethane finish, but be careful, don’t remove outside the area where the support will be glued. If you do, some touch up with the poly should be just fine. I used some keyhole hangers mounted on the back of the supports, then some drywall anchors and screws to mount the finished shelf. Drop me any comments on what I can do better, or questions on how to restore an old shelf. I’m just beyond being a beginner at this!

Finished Shelf!

Old Table/New Table

Something from several years ago that was one of my first woodworking projects. I restored an old table that was dried out and peeling. Sanded down and refinished with a few coats of polyurethane.

First step, sanding off the old finish.
Then a nice, new finish.

A Brand New Site!

Honestly not sure how I’m going to use this page yet, but my re-emergence to Facebook and social media in general after a couple years of limited use got me thinking about how social media, Facebook specifically, might be fun to use again.

I’ve witnessed a lot of negativity, and that is something I will refuse to participate in any more, so I’m going to use this page to get a fresh start on something positive. I don’t do as much woodworking as I’d like to, maybe this will allow me to get a bit deeper into that hobby.

More to come…. 

Hello world!

WOW! Time to rock! Haven’t ever done anything like blogging before, so let’s venture out into this world. HELLO, WORLD!

Did ya’all know that Hello World came from early programming language? The “C” programming language coined this phrase, the program looked like this:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
   printf("Hello World!");
   return 0;
}
TedsWoodworking Plans and Projects

VMenu

Why???

I decided several years ago that there was so much wood that I saw in the landfills, that it was possible to use that for most of the projects I do.


1) It saves me a ton of money!
2) In a small way, it helps the environment, less in landfill, fewer trees cut.

I believe that trees are a renewable resource, I am not at all against using non-recycled wood for building, fine furniture, etc. I just feel not abusing the resource is the important part!