Refurbishing Used Oak Bedroom Furniture For The DIY-er
Oak is a type of hardwood that is used to make furniture. There are actually many different species of oaks, with slightly different characteristics. Not all species are suitable for making furniture, e.g. there are some species used for making cork and others used to make wine barrels. However, oak species used to make furniture have very hard wood, and are often very dense. They also usually contain a high level of tannin, which helps them to strongly resist attacks from fungus and insects. They also have beautiful grain markings. Altogether, these features make oak very desirable for making bedroom furniture. Unfortunately, oak hardwoods grow very slowly and are comparatively scarce compared to softwoods like pine and beech, so this makes oak bedroom furniture rather pricy.
For those who want to own high quality oak bedroom furniture, but cannot normally afford to buy it, there are several different options. One of these is to buy used bedroom furniture made from oak. Typically, you can find them in garage sales by private home owners (including on eBay), sales by bedroom furniture rental agencies and sales of used hotel bedroom furniture.
You may be wondering - if solid oak wood bedroom furniture is so great, why would anyone toss theirs away (or sell it secondhand)? Well, the simple fact is that not everyone recognizes the true value of oak wood furniture. Of those who do, not all of them are able to recognize oak wood. And especially in our modern culture, there are many people who think that if something is broken, then it is time to dispose of it and replace it with something new. Besides, some people just do not care. Many men know this feeling of helpless rage from their boyhood days when their mothers insist on throwing away their comics collection ... including the rare and valuable first issues. There are many women who insist on getting rid of the dowdy old bedroom furniture handed down to them by their husband's parents.
Since used oak bedroom furniture is so great, should everyone buy them? That is not necessarily the case. Most used bedroom furniture show at least some wear and tear, and some have some very real damage. If you do not have the skills to refurbish them yourself, or pay for the repairs, or are unable to find someone who has the necessary skills to perform a complete repair, then they are probably not suitable for you. There are also cases where the old oak furniture has been successfully attacked by fungus. While this is uncommon, some species of red oak are known to have this problem.
Another case where you may not want to buy used bedroom furniture could be when it was used as someone's sickbed or deathbed. While fixing up and sleeping in dear old grandpa's deathbed can be comforting and give you a feeling of safety especially if he used to dote on you and took care of you when you were little, sleeping on the deathbed of some unknown old fogey can be a little too creepy for many people.
So let us say that you found something nice at a garage sale or on eBay, how would you go about refurbishing your recently bought used oak bedroom furniture? First, let us start with some simple repairs. For repairing deep scratches, all you need is wood putty. Follow the instructions for preparing it, then fill in into the scratch. When it is dry, sand it smooth and level with the surrounding wood. After that, you may may need find a matching stain to produce the same shade as the original wood. Depending on the original finish of the furniture, you may wax or varnish it.
Another fairly simple repair is for a leg or some other thick piece of wood that has fallen off. For this kind of repair, you need a power drill or some multipurpose power tool with a drilling attachment. You will also need what is called a Kreg jig. This latter device lets you make what is called a pocket hole joint. It has guides to help you drill holes needed to make this simple but strong joint. All you need to do is clamp the Kreg jig on one piece of wood (following the attached instructions) and drill a hole through following the provided metal guides. Then you glue the two pieces of wood, e.g. the leg of a sideboard to the frame and let the glue dry. Once the glue is dry, you attach a specially provided screw and the broken joint is now as good as new.
When you buy used bedroom furniture, they normally come scuffed or with shallow scratches. You will probably want to strip the old finish (this can be wax, varnish or paint) and then refinish the oak bedroom furniture. The simplest and fastest way is to use the sanding attachment of a multipurpose tool like the Fein Multimaster (recommended for experienced DIY-ers) or a Dremel Rotary Tool (cheap but good enough for the occassional DIY-er). After you remove the old varnish or paint, you can decide whether to refinish with wax, varnish or paint this time around. If your oak furniture has nice grain markings, you may want to use wax or varnish. If there were many deep scratches in highly visible places, or if you need to hide some repairs that may not be up to standard, you may prefer to paint it instead.
Overall, modern tools allow those who are so inclined to easily and quickly make many simple repairs to slightly damaged oak bedroom furniture. They also make the task of refinishing used bedroom furniture much simpler than in the past. Up to a certain extent, the more damaged the furniture you buy is, the better it is for you. Why? Because it lets you bargain the price down much further. Of course, if the damage is beyond your skill to repair, you should probably pass up on the deal.