Collectible Book Case

/ Bluebird Gardens/
My refinished doll cabinet now holds my heirloom plate collection. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

My refinished doll cabinet now holds my heirloom plate collection. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Collectible Book Case

We all have that one piece of furniture that someday we are going to refinish.

This wood book case started out as a glass cabinet for a doll collection. Over the years, I used the wood cabinet as a book case, waiting for the right time to finish it into the glass fronted cabinet it was originally designed to be. The glass pieces were cut a good decade ago; a small miracle that they survived stacked up in a basement closet all of these years.

And I didn’t refinish this. A friend who likes to refinish furniture hauled it off with a supply of Howards Furniture Refinishing products and brought it back better than ever.

Because of the years of use, the cabinet had to first be sanded. The wood is from a now extinct Brazilian tree.

Because of the decades of use, this collectible book case needed to be sanded. (Photo by Jessie Scrivener Gunn.)

Because of the decades of use, this collectible book case needed to be sanded. (Photo by Jessie Scrivener Gunn.)

Sanding down the wood made it possible for the Howard Walnut RestorAFinish to get absorbed. Howard RestorA Finish makes refinishing furniture easy and can be used to treat scratches or refinish a whole piece of furniture.

We didn’t have a match to the original wood color so we mixed colors to match. To make the finish darker, add a second or third layer, allowing each to dry in between and lightly sanding between each application.

Here is the collectible book case finished with a couple of Howard RestorAFinish applications. (Photo by Jessie Scrivener Gunn.)

Here is the collectible book case finished with a couple of Howard RestorAFinish applications. (Photo by Jessie Scrivener Gunn.)

Here it is finished including Howard’s Feed N Wax, a combination of bees wax and carnauba oil that rehydrates wood.

Frankly I will apply Howard’s Feed N Wax when I first find a piece of used furniture. Often that’s all it takes to bring out the wood luster.

We mixed a couple of Howard’s RestorAFinish stains to match the original color. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

We mixed a couple of Howard’s RestorAFinish stains to match the original color. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once back inside my house, I added the glass panels to finish this furniture piece.

The collectible doll collection cabinet now holds my grandmother’s dishes. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The collectible doll collection cabinet now holds my grandmother’s dishes. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The hardest decision I had to make was finding something to use as grips to open the glass. I ended up using tiny plastic squares usually placed under glass for protection.

Tiny plastic squares work well for grips to slide the glass panels. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Tiny plastic squares work well for grips to slide the glass panels. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

You can find Howard’s Refinishing products at some home and garden centers. We carry it because for years it was not available where I live.

I’ve used these products for decades and still find them to be the best on the market for furniture refinishing.

My friend, Jessie Scrivner-Gunn, does what she calls “modest reupholstery and refinishing” so if you have a project you can use help with, contact her at jjcreek165 at yahoo.com or call 573.465.5001.

Thanks, Jessie!

Charlotte