Kitchen furniture repair

We repair kitchen furniture at home: instructions, secrets of the pros, ways to update facades

Purchasing kitchen furniture is expensive. Therefore, it is a shame when, after several years of operation, it loses its attractive appearance, problems appear in the functioning of its individual elements. Throwing away old cabinets, bedside tables, tables and chairs is a pity, but buying new ones is expensive. Repairing kitchen furniture can not only extend the life of these items, but also significantly transform them, adding charm and originality.

Do it yourself or order furniture repair at home?

Before proceeding with the restoration of kitchen furniture, you need to assess the amount of work and decide whether to do everything yourself or hire specialists.

Kitchen furniture made from natural wood can be restored many times. Such furniture is not subject to significant deformation. Most often, wooden surfaces are covered with scratches, chips and abrasions during operation. Do-it-yourself elimination of these flaws is available even to a novice master.

It is more difficult with cabinet furniture made of MDF or chipboard with individual parts made of plastic, glass and metal. Alteration of swollen or lost geometry elements of the cabinet or cabinet can be an overwhelming task, which means that the manufacture of new parts will have to be entrusted to specialists. But with redecoration of the facade or countertop, adjusting or installing new hinges on the doors, you can handle it yourself.

Therefore, we have 2 ways:

Repair furniture yourself. This option is suitable when you need to fix minor defects, you do not need to make complex parts for replacement, as well as in a situation where you want to do without spending money. This way will not only save money, but also bring your creative ideas to life.

Contact a company offering furniture restoration services. Such a solution makes sense when the damaged or lost appearance of the headset elements will not be repaired, a complete replacement of individual blocks is required, for example, facades, countertops. In this case, you will have to spend money, but compared to buying new furniture, this service will be inexpensive. The cost of replacing facades starts at 2200 rubles. per sq. m., countertops - from 4200 rubles. for m. p.

During the repair process, it is useful to check and tighten all threaded connections: often furniture assemblers do not stretch them well enough, which leads to further loosening and distortion of the structure. And also lubricate all hinges and hinges to eliminate unpleasant squeaks and ensure easy operation of these elements.

Door repair

A frequent defect in cabinet furniture is poor work of cabinet doors and nightstands: they warp, do not want to close, and open spontaneously. The reasons are different: incorrect adjustment, defect of the hinges or magnetic latch, skewing of the entire structure, swelling or delamination of the material.

Note: Changes in cabinet geometry are often associated with unsatisfactory back wall conditions. A sheet of fiberboard nailed there plays the role of a kind of fixator. If necessary, change it by cutting the desired fragment to size and attaching it with nails or small screws.

If the problem is in the loop, then its replacement is not always required: in most cases, adjustment helps. For this, the device has two screws: one is responsible for the adherence of the door to the body, the second adjusts its position in the frontal plane, moving it to the right or left.

Torn out "with meat" loop can be installed in place using screws with a larger diameter. Another option is to drill the holes, put wooden pins in them on carpentry glue, and screw the fastening screws into them.

If the hinge breaks, it is changed. Installation in old slots is simple: the fixing screws are screwed into the existing holes. It is more difficult if the hinge is installed in a new place or the door is changed. The assembly takes place in the following order:

Sockets with a diameter of 35 mm for cup hinges are marked and cut with a cutter.

A hinge cup is inserted into the socket located in the door perpendicular to the end face and fixed with a pair of self-tapping screws.

The second cup is placed in the body, secured with screws through special holes in the tides.

Screwing in two adjusting screws, achieve the desired position of the door.

Spontaneous door opening occurs when the magnetic stripe is malfunctioning. In some cases, cleaning the magnet and the iron plate attracted by it from contamination helps, correcting their relative position strictly opposite each other. If these measures do not help, then the element is changed.

Sanding wood elements

Many apartments have wooden furniture, often inherited from grandparents. In terms of workmanship and artistic value, it surpasses the case, but over many years of service, the surface is covered with numerous scratches, chips and spots. The easiest way to redecorate is by sanding.

You will need such tools: a scraper, sandpaper or a sander. The cycle technique is not difficult: the scraper is held with two hands and is progressively moved in the direction of the wood grain. Disadvantages of rough grinding are eliminated with fine sandpaper.

The restored surface is treated with a primer. It will protect the wood from moisture and provide good adhesion to the varnish coating. The varnish will give the furniture a shine, protect against mold or mildew stains. It is applied similarly to paint, with a brush.
Redecoration of cabinet furniture

Small chips, scuffs or scratches are eliminated by simple manipulations:

The edges of the chips are trimmed with a chisel, after which the damage is filled with wax. When it hardens, the excess material is removed, the surface is sanded and painted over with a suitable felt-tip pen or a special furniture pencil for retouching. A varnish applied over the top will protect the repaired area.

If possible, it is better to buy furniture wax of the desired shade and pencils for touching up the furniture surface, which will help to mask any defects on the furniture.

The procedure for repairs in the presence of scratches is the same: wax layer, sanding, painting, varnishing. No staining is required when using colored furniture wax.

The scuffs are painted over using a soft cloth to which the dye from a felt-tip pen has been applied.

The cracks are filled with PVA glue using a syringe with a thin needle, and then tightened with clamps.

Replacing the end flange

A common occurrence is a peeled end edge. Having found an edge that matches the color, they prepare the tool necessary for the repair: scissors, an iron, a painting knife. You will need a roller or cloth to smooth it.

Workpieces are cut with allowances of 1–2 cm long.

Having turned the table top upside down, apply the edge and smooth it with an iron. The heat will melt the glue.

The glued workpiece is pressed to the end and smoothed with a cloth or a piece of felt, directing the movements along.

The excess edge is removed with scissors and a carpenter's knife.

The joints at the corners are sanded with fine sandpaper.

Facade repair

The front parts of kitchen sets most often need updating. There are many options: restoration of the old coating, painting, use of self-adhesive film, decoupage. If desired, you can give the furniture a completely new, unique and original look.
Coating restoration

A mixture of linseed oil and alcohol will help restore the varnish coating with small amounts of damage. She wipes the damaged area, after which the cloth is polished. It will facilitate the process of using a mixture of GOI paste with kerosene.

In case of large-scale damage, the varnish is washed off using special solvents. The softened composition is removed with a spatula, after which the surface is dried, sanded and varnished again.

Repair with self-adhesive film

Self-adhesive film will give the headset a unique look.

Repairing facades with film is simple:

The surface is prepared: the fittings are removed, the facade is sanded, degreased and primed.

A piece of film is cut off with an allowance of 2 cm on each side.

The protective layer is removed from an area of ​​10-15 cm, the film is glued to the edge and at the same time smoothed with a piece of cloth.

Then, gradually unwinding the roll, you need to fix the entire fragment on the facade, avoiding, if possible, the appearance of air bubbles.

When pasting ends and rounded areas, it is recommended to slightly warm up the film with a hairdryer to make it more elastic.

If it is not possible to avoid their formation, the bubbles are punctured with a needle or carefully cut to allow air to escape. It remains to smooth out the film.

Excess material is carefully trimmed.

The use of self-adhesive foil in renovations often completely transforms kitchen furniture.

Removing old film from furniture

A slight detachment of the old self-adhesive film is eliminated with PVA glue. The hardest part is getting to every hard-to-reach place.

But with large-scale damage, you will have to do it radically: remove the film layer completely. This is done as follows:

All accessories are removed. For convenience, it is worth dismantling the front parts and working with them in a comfortable environment.

The film is heated with a building hair dryer, then removed with gloved hands.

The surface is cleaned of glue residues, degreased, and then ready for further finishing: applying a new layer of film or painting.

Furniture painting

It is often easier to paint a façade than to restore an old varnish. At the same time, you can radically change the design of the kitchen.

Competent painting includes the following operations:

Dismantling the headset: removing fittings, hinges and drawers.

Surface preparation: cleaning from dirt, sanding, dust removal, degreasing, priming. The latter is performed several times at intervals of 6-8 hours: this will reliably protect the material from external influences and ensure high adhesion of the paint.

If you plan to paint with different colors, part of the surface on which a different shade will be applied is pasted over with masking tape. The same is done with elements that need to be protected from paint ingress during the repair process.

It is best to paint with the help of aerosol cans or a spray gun: this way it is easier to ensure uniformity of color, you will not see streaks from a brush or marks from a roller.

Decoupage

This technique is a kind of appliqué made from various materials. Most often, drawings are cut from napkins or magazines.

It is recommended to delaminate the paper so that the applique will protrude less above the overall level of the facade. Then the algorithm of actions is as follows:

Preparing the surface: remove the handles and other accessories, clean off the paintwork, grind and repair defects.

To achieve transparency of the varnish layer, mix white acrylic varnish and white paint.

We paint the background in the direction of the wood grain.

The prepared drawing, cut and thinned, is placed symmetrically relative to the facade and covered with a layer of PVA.

After letting the glue dry, we process the surface with fine sandpaper, after which we apply a transparent varnish composition.

After polishing the dried varnish, cover it with a new layer. And so on until the desired result is obtained.

Another option for decoupage is the formation of ornaments using putty:

We mix PVA glue and oil putty to the consistency of thick sour cream.

We make a stencil of the future drawing from thick paper or cardboard.

We fix the stencil on the facade, then apply the prepared solution with a spatula.

After drying, the ornament is grinded and varnished: first transparent, and then matte.

Decoupage is able to transform the most ordinary-looking furniture. There are a great variety of materials and technologies used. It all depends on the imagination and artistic taste of the master.


Restoration of chipboard or wood countertops

It is quite easy to restore areas of the countertop that are swollen from moisture or chips. The repair procedure will be as follows:

Remove loose pieces of material.

Dry thoroughly and grind the surface.

We mix PVA glue with sawdust so that a thick mass is obtained.

We fill the cavities with the resulting mixture, put the load and leave it for 24 hours.

We apply a protective coating to the surface.

Restoring a burnt tabletop

Such damage is not uncommon for the surface of kitchen cabinets and tables. Replacing the countertop is a radical measure, but you can try to do without it by eliminating the damage yourself.

With a pencil, draw around the boundaries of the defect with an allowance of 2 cm on the undamaged surface.

We remove the burnt out area of ​​the chipboard. A router is used for this operation. They sequentially remove layers of material: first along the marked line to one depth, then with a longer cutter - the next layer. And so - until the complete removal of the defective material. The result is a stepped depression that looks like a miniature diamond and coal mine.

Along the contour of the cut, we make teeth with a milling cutter for better adhesion of the patch material to the base. It will also help to smooth the transition.

We fill the hole with wood putty. Cut off the piece you need in size, knead it with your hands until it is soft and carefully tamp it into the cutout. It is necessary to work quickly, as the putty dries up in a matter of minutes.

Excess material protruding beyond the plane of the tabletop is removed with a tool with an even edge. Some craftsmen use an old plastic card for this. To speed up the process, use a milling cutter with special grinding attachments.

We polish the smooth surface using GOI paste with a soft coated tip. This will give the patch a glossy finish.

All that remains is to paint the area to be restored, repeating the color and texture of the main part of the countertop.

Making countertops from tiles

What to do if the countertop is bloated or warped from moisture? The easiest option is to replace it with a new one, but there is no guarantee that it will not share the same fate. The tile covering is more reliable, and it is not difficult to carry out such a modernization of the kitchen set.

Work order:

The basis of the new countertop is made up of expanded polystyrene sheets fixed with liquid nails.

Protective elements are attached to the same composition. Metal skirting boards are best suited for these purposes: angular, connecting the surface of the countertop and the wall, end and thin, serving as edging tiles.

Tile adhesive is applied to the new base surface of the worktop.

Tiles are laid out. Its height should correspond to the thin skirting boards around the countertop.

After the glue has dried, grouting is performed. The use of silicone-based waterproof compounds is recommended. This will prevent moisture from entering the structure.

The result is a flat and durable surface that is not afraid of water.

Repair of chairs

The damaged coverings of old kitchen chairs are repaired using the above methods. The exception is furniture with soft seats: pulling them without skill is quite problematic, although possible. But there is a simple option: to make a cover. In this case, no hauling is required, and the appearance problem will be solved.

Loose parts are reinforced with wood glue. In exceptional cases, self-tapping screws are used with the obligatory drilling of holes for them. Coloring and decoupage transform an old unsightly chair into an original and beautiful piece of furniture.

Do not throw away old kitchen furniture that has lost its external gloss. With a little imagination, you can give it a completely new look, adding originality to the interior of your home.

If you do not have time to repair kitchen furniture, you can contact our craftsmen in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod.

We will replace any kitchen fittings and mechanisms. We will install additional accessories. We will change the countertop, apron and facades to new ones. We will replace the glass in the kitchen doors.

☎ +7 (812) 980-36-42