In this video I buy and restore a secondhand mid century modern style sideboard.
I came across this while browsing through my facebook feed, it looked like someone was going to throw it away, so I bought it from them, paying £20.
It wasn't in too bad condition, but it had some scratches, heat and water stains and one of the drawer runners was missing. The finish was also quite dull.
I started out by making a new set of drawer runners for it, as the old ones were softwood and only attached with staples and very little glue - not very well made...
I made the new runners out of some scraps of oak that I had in the workshop, cutting them to the same size as the old runners.
I carefully positioned them where the old runners had been, using a couple of scrap pieces of wood as "spacers" to keep them at consistent heights. I first glued and nailed them in, knowing that if they didn't quite fit I could pull them off again before the glue set and make adjustments. This method worked quite well. Once I knew that the runners were positioned correctly I attached the new runners with glue and screws making sure to countersink holes in the runners so I wouldn't split the thin pieces of oak.
All three drawers fitted quite nicely apart from the middle drawer, which was a little too low, so I pulled the runners off, placed a couple of shims under the spacers to lift it by a couple of mm and then screwed it in place.
To rejuvenate the finish, I first tried to get rid of the heat and water stains with an iron and a piece of cloth, a method that worked really well when I restored a sapele chest of drawers recently. However it didn't work well on this piece, perhaps because the stains were quite old. So instead, I sanded, and applied some Superior Danish Oil which really brought out the grain nicely and it looked really nice. Finally, I applied some clear Briwax for a bit of extra protection and buffed the whole unit to a nice sheen.
I'm really pleased with how it turned out and it's a perfect fit in my dining room.
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