Recover old furniture with a touch of creativity

Creativity and ecology: the recovery old furniture

If there are common passion for design and attention to environmental sustainability, creating furniture and home accessories, starting with the recovery of objects and materials found, could be a moment of pure entertainment and a challenge to jump start your creativity!


The increasing attention to the respect for the environment and an eye to saving that with the escalation of the crisis really is not bad, are transforming the recovery of used in a creative hobby that this trend and someone is even a new professional opportunity!

Transform old furniture with DIY

Retrieve a piece of furniture used in DIY is how to collect historical heritage and transmit it to revisit it in light of new standards of beauty, or giving a different functionality.


The simplest task that could be done to recover old furniture is to give them a new look, through the painting of the surface, perhaps with a touch of color. We must of course start from the removal of the previous color to go with one or more coats of paint that once dry, will be protected with a shiny or satin finish.


To give our cabinet a touch of glamor we opt for a metallic spray paint that highlights some decorative details; for those more familiar with the manual work, a better effect may be obtained by employing the metal foils, applied directly to the surface to be coated on which was previously lying in the specific adhesive, called mordant.


The application of metallic leaves is very similar to the technique of decoupage, one of the most popular for the restyling of used furniture; the difference lies in the adhesive used for the adhesion of the paper.
For the furnishings with fabric parts, renewal of fabrics can be a simple and effective way to change the character of our furniture.

Removing paint from old furniture

If at home we have an old piece of furniture, painted or coated, and we are going to recover it, it is important to follow a few tips to prepare the wood to receive the new decoration, getting rid of the old one.

It is preferable to choose an outdoor place or well ventilated for the preparation of the wood to be recovered, and remember to always wear mask, gloves and goggles.

If the surface of the cabinet is covered with wallpaper, it is important to remove effectively moisten it with a sponge soaked in hot water and then scraping it away with a spatula.


In the case where the cabinet to be recovered is covered with a protective film, it is necessary to eliminate the various layers of paint. There are two methods that can be used: chemically, with gel paint stripper or mechanically, with the electric sander.

In the first case it is important to use all the protective measures because the strippers are highly toxic substances; the product should be applied to the surface with a special brush and in small quantities. Once left to work for about 15 minutes, or by following the instructions in the package, you must remove it with steel wool, wipe and polish with fine sandpaper weight.


If we are provided with electric sander it is good to remember that the paper glass should be replaced as soon as it wear and that his weight depends on the number of layers of paint to be removed.

Retrieve a piece of furniture, transforming it into a pouffe shoe rack

There are plenty of ideas that, armed with imagination and patience, you can achieve with DIY; here are some.

Let's talk about a pouffe shoe rack, made from an old furniture, made by a creative duo, DaMa RicreArt the union of two fervent minds that have decided to set up a project to restore old furniture, used, perhaps abandoned in a dumpster and returned to life.

The framers of this aspect in a playful, as well as ecological recovery used are the two restorers Daniela Gazineo and Massimiliano Di Maio that a few months ago, in Salerno, decided to recycle their work, joining together the knowledge in field of restoration and creativity truly inexhaustible!

One of the things we love more than the restoration is observing; analyze an object and pull out what is still alive, let it breathe, give it a new identity.

And they have found objects that suggest the two restorers ideas that will put into practice to return their beauty and usefulness. The same symbol that represents them, DaMa, is the acronym of their names but also the first object found and decided to refurbish: a chessboard.


The idea of thepouffe shoe rack born looking at the object, what inspires and how it is.
Before the restoration, the cabinet, no longer supplied with the foot, which originally were high, found its new role thanks to this sort of amputation; therefore, it has been redesigned to be placed on the ground, in a bedroom, with the function of shoe rack, chromatically alternating white and black with some element more playful.

Realization of the DIY pouffe shoe rack

What you need for this project is:
- Sandpaper with different weights
- Brushes of different sizes
- Paint sealer
- Cementite
- Paint white water
- Paint water black
- Sheets of newspaper
- Glossy finish
- Foam
- Fabric choice


The first step is the removal of paint from surfaces, so that the new color sticks well. You can use the paint remover or mechanically scrape the paint, using double sandpaper and then rehearsing with the thinner one.
To further optimize the preparation of the paint, stretch one or more coats of sealer, after 24 hours.

Pass then two coats of white paint over most of the furniture both outside and inside, with the exception of some details, such as strips, which will be painted in black.

Once you are sure that the entire surface is completely dry, it goes to the decoration of the doors with decoupage. Recoveries of newsprint and glossy magazines will be just fine.


Specifically, for this project was used paper made from an old Week crossword, cutting the figures in boxes and then snugging them with a common glue, previously spread evenly over the concerned surface.

Once dry, the furniture is painted with a glossy finish, possibly non-toxic water based. For the realization of the ottoman, on a scrap of foam, in this case recovered from an abandoned couch, the pillow was made by relining it with the fabric always in black & white, sold in the store, in the markets, but that can also be obtained from old clothing decommissioned.

Now our new shoe rack is ready to be installed in the room!