Do-it-yourself antique wooden furniture: Tips + Photos and Videos

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An original way to update the interior would be to make your own antique furniture; drawings and diagrams will help with this. Handmade is a very popular trend in recent years; unique technologies for creating vintage items have not bypassed the furniture sector. The future design needs to be carefully considered - whether it will be collapsible, which elements need to be decorated, since this determines what tools will need to be used.

Antique wooden furniture design: decor variations

Any unremarkable chair, cabinet, dining or desk made of solid wood can become an expressive art object. Amazing transformations of furniture can be easily accomplished using various arts and crafts techniques and methods for transforming wooden parts:

• whitening;
• staining;
• varnishing;
• grinding;
• toning;
• wax treatment with imitation patina;
• coating with paint with a craquelure effect;
• paintings.

Wood is a plastic material that can be easily processed. By using the above methods, you can modify wood carpentry at home, giving them a characteristic touch of antiquity.

Wood can easily be given a characteristic touch of antiquity

To create a luxurious-looking interior composition in the Art Deco or Neoclassical style, it is enough to use unique furniture with an antique design as accent details. It must be made of valuable wood species - wenge, zebrawood, oak, mahogany or teak.

Filigree wood carving, gilding and silvering of panels gives the carpentry a luxurious antique look. It is advisable to perform such furniture decoration when arranging palace interiors. Large costs for their design can be significantly reduced by purchasing or restoring dilapidated armchairs, sofas, beds, dressing tables and other furniture products. Even tacky-looking furnishings will take on a respectable appearance with skillfully done reupholstery, repair of broken parts and hand-made antique decor.

Furniture with carvings and gilding for luxurious interiors

What can you say about antique furniture?

Furniture that looks as if it came to a house or apartment from ancient times looks very durable and original. Manufacturers offer kitchen sets, garden furniture designs, products for living room furnishings and other options.

Some things can be bought ready-made through catalogues, while others are made only for individual orders.

Externally, these are products that can look both like a palace set and like good-quality country furniture. It all depends on the manufacturing method, the material and its processing.

To make furniture really look antique, corners are knocked off, edges are uneven, scuffs are left, they are painted unevenly, there are chips and chips, you can find scratches, and if there is metal in the product, you can even find corrosion on it. Of course, the products are completely new, all this is done by craftsmen specifically for the effect of antiquity.

Features of aged furniture

Antique wooden furniture has incredible appeal. Careless processing of facades, uneven painting, roughness and other defects are the aesthetic advantages of interior details that contradict modern precision and perfection. Signs of disrepair reflect the imprint of centuries of use, reminiscent of hand-made production by master cabinetmakers.

Careless processing will add charm to the furniture

Characteristic signs of antique furniture are aesthetically pleasing flaws:

• deliberately uneven edges;
• broken corners;
• abrasions;
• gouges;
• uneven color;
• cracked paint layer;
• scratches;
• minor chips;
• traces of corrosion.

The wood base withstands sandpaper, milling or pyrography equipment. Thanks to this, any details can be made perfectly smooth, decorated with ornate carvings or burnt patterns. The imprints of time on furniture in the form of decoratively created flaws will highlight the elite features of the interior, symbolizing respect for timeless classics, modern, art deco and other design styles.

Antique furniture design will highlight the style of the interior

Used furniture will be useful for recreating a picture of an interior with a peasant life typical of country, rustic and rustic design styles. Furnishings with artificially created cracks and traces of peeling paint symbolize the design of a home in vintage style. If you add painting with floral motifs, the carpentry will organically fit into the Provençal setting.

For a Provence style interior, add painting

What attracts you to antique furniture?

Designers have been giving preference to furniture made from natural materials for many years now. This is due to the fact that this material has a lot of useful properties:

• It easily harmonizes with all colors.
• Can be used in absolutely any style.
• Makes absolutely any environment cozy.
• Never goes out of style.

A special niche is occupied by furniture made of aged wood. It is distinguished not only by its high quality, but also by its unique appearance. Antique products have an inexplicable charm and mystery. They carry the mysteries of the past, so they become increasingly valuable with age. This makes them truly exclusive.

Aged door in loft style

Antique Provence style living room interior

Antique furniture in Provence style

The comfort of a country cottage overlooking endless lavender fields can be easily recreated in your own home if you imitate the aesthetics of the Provençal style. The characteristic interior is dominated by natural motifs, whitewashed furniture with expressive defects in the form of barely noticeable abrasions and cracks.

To give carpentry a worn-out look, just use a simple decoration method:

• Remove old paint from furniture fronts and carpentry parts using sandpaper or sanding equipment.
• Paint alternately with dark and light paint.

Paint the surface with different paints one by one

• Rub the top layer with sanding paper until fragments of the base tint appear on the surface.

Sand the top layer with sanding paper.

As a result, you will be able to achieve the effect of the furniture being worn out in certain places, simulating the appearance of dilapidation. In addition to signs of disrepair, carpentry in the Provence style is characterized by decorating the facades of cabinets, chests of drawers, dressing tables, and sideboards with floral motifs in the form of painting.

Decorate furniture using decoupage technique

An elementary method of painting decoration is do-it-yourself furniture decoupage:

• After the above-described treatment of the carpentry bases, it is necessary to generously lubricate the decorative area with acrylic glue.
• Tightly attach decorative napkins or specialized decoupage cards with selected designs.

Apply glue and apply decorative napkins tightly

• After drying, the composition must be coated with a double layer of acrylic varnish.

After drying, coat the surface with a double layer of varnish

Antique wooden chests of drawers decorated with vines, sideboards with wildflowers, a massive dining table with various flaws are an aesthetic reference point for the dominance of Provence in the interior. Each piece of furniture, due to its external imperfection, creates the feeling of being used by many generations.

The uniqueness of antique furniture

Antique wooden furniture has remained popular for several years now. This can be explained by the many advantages it has:

• It harmonizes perfectly with different colors and textures in the interior.
• Can be used for any style.
• Creates a cozy atmosphere in the room.
• Excellent workmanship.

Wood products deserve special attention, as they not only have unsurpassed characteristics, but also an interesting appearance that will help decorate any room. Antique products carry charm and elegance, which is inherent only in things that are very old. Often people who want to decorate their home with such things ask questions about where to get such pieces of furniture.

There are several solutions:

1. Buying furniture from an antique store is an option for those with an unlimited budget. This fact can be explained by the fact that genuine antique furniture or restored compositions are very expensive due to exclusivity.
2. Purchasing modern furniture that has been artificially aged. But even for this you will have to spend money.
3. Aging furniture with your own hands. To do this, use what you have at your dacha or in the house. This approach will be a solution for those who have creative abilities and good imagination. Next, we will tell you how to age furniture with your own hands.

The role of antique furniture in a modern interior

It is reasonable to complement the abundance of chrome and glossy furnishings, dazzling the picture of an ultra-fashionable interior, with contrasting details. To organically combine modern interior elements and vintage carpentry, you must adhere to the following design rules:

• Antique furniture should be used to create accent areas in the interior composition.

Furniture decorated in antique style as an accent piece

• Modern lighting installations will competently emphasize the presentable appearance of an exclusive retro detail.
• Items of furniture and decor should be grouped according to stylistic characteristics.
• To beautifully combine old and new furnishings, you need to create harmonious contrasts. For example, place a dining table made of stained oak with a cracked top next to a perfectly smooth mirror or surrounded by transparent plastic chairs.

Create harmonious contrasts in the interior

• Maintaining color balance with a dosage of 60-30-10%, belonging to the main, additional and accent tone. If rare furniture should act as a visual dominant, then its color should be chosen in accordance with the focal color. Retro details of a similar tone with a basic color background look harmonious with the surrounding space.

Choose a color to match your focal color

To create the appearance of antiquity, designers meticulously work out every detail of the carpentry. Thanks to a creative approach, decorators manage to create real works of furniture art. As a result, the external imperfection of antique wooden furniture is elevated to the rank of dignity, because each element acquires individuality.

Modifications of aged furniture for arranging a living room

In historical design styles, reflecting the principles of interior design in past eras, the hall occupied a large-scale space in the house. Volumetric bay windows, high ceilings and spaciousness of the representative area were reflected in the furniture industry. In the old days, carpentry was made with large-sized parts and expressive decoration, clearly visible from the far corner of a large room. Therefore, it is appropriate to use rare furnishing details for the improvement of large living rooms:

• Massive bookcase made of oak or pine with carved frame. To emphasize its long-term use, it is necessary to complement the aesthetics of antiquity with books with worn bindings.

Massive bookcase decorated in antique style

• A display case with peeling paint on wooden supports is perfect for displaying decorative items with history - a china set or a collection of antiques.
• A chest of drawers with a figured frame and patinated handles will perfectly serve as a podium for displaying family heirlooms - candlesticks, boxes, plates with Zhostovo painting.

Place decorative elements on the chest of drawers

• A Voltaire chair with curved legs or a rocking chair with a rough wooden frame are an integral attribute of the fireplace area with the aura of bygone times.
• A coffee table with a round table top and a base in the form of a wood sculpture will create comfortable conditions for board games.

A comfortable coffee table will take its rightful place in the living room interior

Antique wooden furniture is optimal for decorating a living room, where you can fully relax from the intense rhythm of life and have plenty of nostalgia for the regularity of life in past times.

Selection of antique furniture for the kitchen

If you want to decorate a place for daily meals and holiday feasts in a special way, it is important to use various aged furniture items:

• Lacquered dining tables with a voluminous tabletop and shaped legs in the form of balusters in tandem with standard chairs are a characteristic feature of kitchens with the aesthetics of historical design styles. Finely crafted classic decorative elements symbolize handicraft furniture production. Signs of antiquity may appear in the form of chips or a fine network of cracks on the varnished surface. A similar visual effect can be easily achieved by using craquelure varnish to cover a wooden tabletop or base.

Characteristic cracks can be obtained using craquelure

• A dining set consisting of a table and stools made from unhewn boards is an integral attribute of a kitchen in a rustic, chalet or country style. The deliberately rough decor of antique furniture will be emphasized by staining in natural tones.

Antique cabinet design for a country style kitchen

• Dining chairs with soft seats and backs covered in fabric with obvious signs of wear can be placed around a table with a homespun tablecloth. Whitewashed frames with uneven colors in tandem with draped fabric with pastoral patterns will clearly reflect the signs of the dominance of Provence or shabby chic.

Artificially aged furniture is ideal for a Provence style kitchen

The tradition of gathering around the dinner table ineradicably migrates from one era to another. Today, as in the old days, it is important to organize cozy dining areas in the kitchen with a wide table and comfortable chairs with high backs. To create an antique ambience, it is wise to give preference to the incomparable design of aged wooden furniture that preserves the history of meals for many generations.

What can you say about antique furniture of different styles?

Depending on the person’s desire, the setting is selected: is it an accent or a full-fledged correspondence to a certain style, everyone decides for himself. We invite you to look at the styles where such “antique” furniture will fit perfectly.

Country and chalet

Country seems simple and somewhat rough in a rustic way, so emphasis should be placed on the roughness, unevenness, and structure of the material. Country music is good in the kitchen and dining room. Painted furniture is difficult to fit into country style.

The massiveness of the tree is good in country

The chalet is gaining popularity. An excellent style for country and hunting lodges, country villas. This is a combination of elegant simplicity and practicality. An interior that asks for antique furniture in the natural color of wood.

The fur and wooden structures of chalet-style houses are ideal for placing “antique” furniture there

Provence and vintage

The color of the furniture can tell about Provence: these are white tones, shades of lilac, light blue, white-mint, pastel colors. The presence of cracks and abrasions is a must. The product may include forged metal elements.

You can choose a façade with floral patterns in the form of unobtrusive flowers.

This is furniture painted in suitable colors, which has scratches and places from which the paint was specially removed

Vintage style is known for its smooth lines and geometric breaks. Those who make vintage interiors have a very special character.

This type of furniture can be found in the living room, bedroom, and dining room.

Shabby chic

Shabby chic is a gentle and pleasant style. Furniture should not look rough. Select slightly aged products painted in light colors. One should get the impression that the furniture set was brought here from a hiding place of the last century.

Scuffs, seemingly see-through patterns, pastel or white colors

Furniture is characterized by the use of a convex ornament and bas-relief, and the pattern should not look “heavy”.

Simple ways to give furniture an antique look

In order for carpentry to quickly acquire a pompous look with a flair of antiquity, you need to use effective decorative methods:

• Brushing allows you to expressively highlight the unique images of growth rings and corrugations on solid wood. During the process of natural aging, the surface of the wood cut becomes dull and the natural pattern becomes much brighter than the surrounding background. It is not difficult to artificially create such a visual effect by treating the surface of furniture products with steel brushes or sandblasting equipment in the factory. At the final stage of decoration, it is necessary to cover the surface with wax or varnish.

Brushing will highlight the unique texture of the wood

• Gilding gives wooden interior items a noble look with an emphasis on precious finishes to match the antiquity. A common method of decorating furniture facades is gilding with gold leaf (specialized foil with a color characteristic of a valuable metal). The shiny material is finely crushed, glued to the base, processed with a soft brush to remove the edges of gold fragments and polished for fixation.

Gilding gives furniture a noble look

• Patination creates the appearance of plaque formation, symbolizing the long service life of the joinery. Often, the effect of patina on furniture is expressed in the finishing of corners, recesses, and recesses in a color different from the base. A similar look can be achieved simply by using textured paint, shellac or bitumen varnish.

Patination will make furniture more impressive

The unique design of antique furniture, captivating with decorative delights, has an amazing similarity to genuine antiques. Therefore, it is wise to master the basics of decorating old carpentry, which can look brilliant after skillfully carried out restoration.

What techniques for making antique furniture can you use with your own hands?

Those who make furniture with their own hands can try to make it not just unique, but antique. Let's get acquainted with the techniques of aging furniture products.

Chemical treatment

Pine as a material is most often subjected to chemical treatment. Suitable reagents for this purpose must be applied to the surface of the product. They are responsible for how the material will crack.

Not the easiest way for home craftsmen

Chemical processing is harmful to human health, so first of all, the master must study the rules for safe work with the selected reagent.

Heat treatment

An aged surface can be created by treating wood thermally. This is also a rather labor-intensive method.

You need to skillfully direct the flame of a blowtorch or burner onto the material. It is important not to burn the entire surface, but only to unevenly destroy the surface layer.

Subsequently, the wood is treated with sandpaper or a metallic brush, which will clean off the burned areas.

The ash is removed, the texture of the material, smoothed by processing, becomes more visible

All that remains is to apply two layers of linseed oil, allowing each to dry thoroughly.

Brushing

An interesting way to age wood is to use a stiff brush.

The task is to actively work with a hard metallized brush on the top layer of wood. It must be completely removed, revealing the texture fibers underneath.

For such work, in addition to the manual method, you can use special attachments.

You need to apply a polyurethane primer to the material (choose the one with a high percentage of dry residue). It is applied with a brush or spray and wait until completely dry.

After drying, the surface is sanded and the pile is removed. All that remains is to apply varnish with a coloring pigment.

After removing the remaining varnish, don’t forget to admire the instantly aged piece of furniture

Gilding and patination

You can turn furniture into antique by patination. To do this, you need to apply one layer of varnish, which, after drying, becomes covered with a patina. After 30-40 minutes they begin to treat the surface with a metallized brush. The more and more actively they act, the greater the aging effect.

At the end of the work, you should wipe everything with a rag and varnish

To do gilding, you can take a sponge and dip it in a suitable paint. As an option, purchase gold leaf and a flute brush. Mordan glue is applied with it, and in a very even layer. And now the most interesting part: your fingers become covered with chalk. Take the gold leaf and apply it to the surface to be treated. The gaps are covered with foil.

At the end everything needs to be polished and varnished.

Painting with craquelure effect

For those who don’t know, there is a very interesting varnish that creates the effect of cracks. This miracle is called “craquelure” or “crackle”. First, a base is applied to the material: an option is selected based on color, what color the cracks should be. As soon as the base has dried, apply craquelure varnish. It is important to apply all strokes in the same direction, and do not forget to add color.

The desired cracks appear

Their size depends on the varnish: they can be graceful cracks, similar to those that appear on old porcelain or paintings. Or it could be large cracks, like paint that has cracked from age.

The last stage includes crown coating with regular varnish. The whole process can be seen in the video.

How to make an aged coffee table with your own hands: step-by-step master class

You don't have to use second-hand chairs or stools to create unique antique pieces. In the old days, junk foundations acted as furnishing objects. An original idea for creating an aged coffee table could be the use of non-trivial details:

• large logs;
• rare chests;
• wooden boxes for vegetables or fruits;
• pallets

To make a shabby-looking coffee table from pallets, you need to follow a simple technique:

• Carefully treat the pallets - clean them from dirt, replace rusted nails, sand them using a drill with a woodworking attachment.

Handle pallets thoroughly

• Connect several pallets together depending on the desired height of the underframe.
• Make a tabletop from a disassembled pallet. To give the boards an antique effect, use a chisel to make chopped slits in a chaotic manner. Alternative methods of decoration are to knock down corners, make holes with nails or burn the boards in several places with a blowtorch. Imitation of mechanical damage will give the products a used look.

Give painted planks an aged look

• Attach massive furniture wheels at the bottom on four sides with the ability to turn in any direction and lock in the desired position.

Attach furniture wheels

There are many ways to design antique furniture. Photos of the stages of hand-made decor of carpentry can inspire any connoisseur of aged household items to independently create interesting interior details.

Make a unique piece of furniture with your own hands

Design tips for using aged furniture

Bold experiments with the design of wooden interior items are justified by obtaining an exclusively decorated home with a memorable setting akin to a museum exhibition of antique furniture exhibits. Therefore, do not rush to get rid of interior items that have long lost their original appearance and gone out of fashion.

Antique furniture made of solid pine is ideal for the first restoration tests. This type of wood has a soft structure and an expressive natural pattern, presented in the form of voluminous rings of asymmetrical shape. It is enough to sand the surface of the pine joinery, treat it with linseed oil and cover it with acrylic varnish. In addition, solid pine is an inexpensive building material. If it is necessary to replace broken parts, it is easy to correct the defects at low financial costs.

Solid pine furniture can be easily restored

Aged carpentry can fully recreate the interior of an ancient Russian hut, palace apartments or chambers of royal estates. The use of dilapidated chests of drawers, sideboards, consoles and other outdated furniture elements is an excellent alternative to expensive antiques.

Antique furniture design is an excellent alternative to antiques

When designing an interior design, it is necessary to clearly distribute the main and secondary roles between rare and modern pieces of furniture. Excessive use of antiques will create the appearance of a museum setting, contrary to the comfort of home. The measured use of antique wood furniture with a fascinating carving shape will balance the pretentious shine of designer finishing elements that correspond to interior fashion trends.

Making your own antique furniture

How to make antique furniture? In fact, this process is not particularly difficult, since you only need to create a worn effect. For this purpose, it is best to use already outdated pieces of furniture, especially good if they are made of untreated pine, which is malleable in structure. But you can also use chipboard furniture.

To carry out aging so that the result is pleasing and of high quality, you should buy a good brush from which the fibers will not fall out, as well as alkyd varnish, paint of the desired shade and tracing paste.

So, you need to follow the following algorithm:

1. Surface cleaning. In this case, if the furniture is new, you can skip this step. If the furniture has been previously used, all dirt should be removed. It happens that the furniture is covered with varnish or even paint, and then the layer should be removed using a grinding machine or sandpaper. Don't be afraid if the paint remains in some places.
2. Coloring. You need to cover the furniture with a layer of paint and leave it to dry. The drying time may vary, it all depends on the paint purchased (the drying time is usually written on the can).
3. Processing with tracing paste . When the paint is completely dry, apply tracing paste to it. After this, the surface will look as if it had been whitewashed.
4. Grinding. After four hours of drying the paste, it should be sanded. To do this, we make abrasions in those places where it is intended.

Coating with paint and varnish composition. Finished furniture must be cleaned of pieces of material and dust and varnished.

Helpful advice! You can achieve shine by treating furniture with wood polish.

Photo gallery – antique furniture design