Furniture Upcycling Tools of the Trade: Essential Tools for Repairing, Restoring, Repurposing, Refinishing and Reupholstering Furniture
FURNITURE UPCYCLING
Tools of the Trade
Essential Tools for Repairing,
Restoring, Repurposing, Refinishing
and Reupholstering Furniture
and Reupholstering Furniture
There are DIY furniture up-cyclers
that redo a few furniture pieces here and there (usually for their own
homes)…and then there are those DIYers in the “biz” of repairing, restoring,
repurposing, refinishing and reupholstering furniture for others. It is for these latter furniture artisans (or
ones who aspire to rise to that level) that I have produced this guide. If you are not sure yet if you want to invest
that much energy (and money) into this craft…or if you are just tinkering…or
really just enjoy playing with power tools…I have organized this guide to be
useful for you, too.
In my case, I started out as a tinkerer
who enjoyed playing with power tools to see if I could fix things around my
house on my own without paying a contractor a ton of money. (As a woman, success in this realm was particularly
satisfying, especially when said contractors would stop by for other purposes,
and be surprised at work that I had done.)
Thus, I had a head start on collecting tools that would ultimately
enable me to up-cycle furniture, and which constituted components of my “early”
up-cycling workshop.
What I found as I began working on more
and more furniture—both from clients who came to me for custom work, and my own
projects to sell—is that the tools that I brought for my “hobby” turned out to
not be the most effective for up-cycling and crafting on a larger scale. I have since upgraded many of my “essential
tools,” and invested in some “nice-to-haves,” (NTHs) to make my workshop more
productive and efficient.
In this guide I will show you two levels
of tools—”basic” and “better”—for both the essential and NTH categories, so
that you can choose what meets your needs.
I will share what I believe to be the “essentials” for various tasks,
including the bare minimum you will need if you are just doing a few furniture
pieces, plus the better options if you plan to make this more than just a brief
pursuit.
You should also note that all tools, and
especially the “big ones” come in a range of price points. In most cases, I have found that the less
expensive brands have worked just fine for me and enable me to achieve the
results that I want. It’s all a matter
of preference, however, and my suggestions (and photos) are representative of
the type of tool, and not meant to be endorsements of any specific brand.
THE ESSENTIALS
Fastening Tools and Nail Drivers
Purpose: Tools to drive nails will be critical to
repairing and repurposing furniture and decorative accents. In particular, you will find nails most
useful in repairing things like broken chair-legs, etc.
Screwdrivers
Purpose: Screwdrivers will be key for removing and
reattaching hardware, attaching legs to tables, removing/reattaching cabinet
doors, etc., and may also be useful for some furniture repair.
Drills
Purpose: Drills are useful for creating new
holes for hardware and pilot holes for screws and nails (if you are not
using an air gun), creating a countersink for screws, and boring small to medium holes.
Mitering Saws
Purpose: Mitering saws will enable you to cut
certain pieces of wood at an angle, typically moldings and other narrow wood
pieces. This is great for doing
modifications to basic furniture pieces by add molding; creating frames or nice
corners on L-shaped benches.
Jigsaw/Bandsaw/Scroll Saw
Purpose: These saws are great for making round
cuts or cutting along non-straight lines, creating round or
scalloped cuts, or decorative shapes.
They are also great for cutting thick upholstery foam.
THE NICE-TO-HAVES
Router and Router Bits
Purpose: Creates decorative edges, grooves, ruts,
keyholes, joints etc. on wood boards, which are useful when creating shelves or table tops with a decorative or
round-over edges, for example.
Specialty Tools and Gadgets
Purpose: These tools are typically used only once
in awhile and are great for the
purpose of use, but might not be worth the cost (or space
allowance) for the frequency of use.
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