How To Restore Old Wooden Furniture
My first and most important piece of advice to anyone who wants to copy my success is, "Forget all the refinishing guides you may have read." Most such directions make impossible demands on your time and money. A perfect high-gloss finish, for instance, is difficult to apply and a waste of effort. The same goes for the majority of "grain fillers" and sealers. Ditto for oil finishes, which are fragile. Forget all that and let me tell you about my favorite method of how to restore old wooden furniture . . . a quicker, less expensive technique that lets beautiful old wood look like beautiful old wood.
Your Stock in Trade
What you want to look for in secondhand furniture is good wood hiding under layers of badly applied paint or varnish. The more thoroughly its quality is concealed, the more valuable the piece will be when you're done. Many smaller items, and almost anything that is lightly finished, will be bid out of sight . . . so your best bets are the big gummed-up uglies.
How To Restore Old Wooden Furniture
Material, construction, and general appearance of old furniture are more important than detail or present state. I've even bought pieces that were failing apart, as long as the wood wasn't cracked and the joints themselves — as distinct from their shaky fastenings — were in decent shape.