How To Update Pine Furniture

Whether you’ve pine furniture at home already, or spotted some at your local charity shop, we’re here to tell you how to give it a refresh 🔃

Guess what? This upcycled bedside table is a pine piece, originally found in a charity shop 🤯

What is pine furniture? 🤔

You might be thinking, what is pine furniture and what makes it so special? Well, pine is a cheap and reliable hard wood that resists shrinking and swelling in humid environments, making it the perfect material for furniture. 

We’ve all spotted pine furniture in the local charity shop, or forgotten about a pine sideboard in our own homes. That’s not because the pine pieces are unusable, but because their warm, traditional style just feels a little dated ⏳

A sturdy wood with a straight grain, pine furniture is simple to stain and paint, making it ideal for reimagining. So, step into your overalls and whip out your tool kit, as the creative possibilities are endless. Before you know it, you’ll have a practical piece of pine  furniture that completes your interior scheme 👌

Charlie lime washed her pine bedside tables, and topped it off with LUNA 🖌

Why upcycle pine furniture?

Upcycling is a sustainable way of introducing practical and punchy furniture into your home. There are plenty of pieces of furniture, from dressing tables to chests of drawers, all often dumped at the landfill. By giving an old pine piece a makeover, you’re not contributing to landfill waste 🚮

You’re also reducing the need of using more pine wood to manufacture new furniture, which altogether lowers the amount of both air and water pollution, and even greenhouse gases 🌏

Now you know the endless environmental benefits of upcycling pine furniture, let’s get straight into it 👷‍♀️

Prepare the furniture

First things first. Preparation is all-important before you start upcycling. Remove the old hardware from your pine piece and clean with some sugar soap 🧼

Pine furniture tends to have knots in the wood grain, so be sure to use epoxy to smooth these out. Simply pour thin layers into the knot and leave to set. Once set, sand down until the surface is completely smooth 👌

Prime your furniture if you’re hoping to paint your furniture a different colour. Shellac-based primers are best if you’ve just used epoxy, to help seal the repaired knots.

For more guidance, read our full how-to on prepping your drawers 👨‍🏫

Redesign your pine piece 👨‍🎨

Whether you’re working on a bedside table or sideboard, here are four different ways to inject some personality into your pine furniture. Choose one method or combine a few if you’re feeling extra crafty.

1. Apply Limewash

Embrace that character-filled oak grain and add a wash of cloudy, neutral colour, with limewash. Charlie painted her bedside tables with an even layer of liming wax and then buffed with a soft cloth. Once dried, she followed up with finishing wax. Easy peasy, lime squeezy 🍋

Does your space have a darker scheme? Try applying a darker wood stain, for an antique, walnut-like look.

2. Add a lick of paint

Paint always does the trick. Opt for whichever colour you think best complements your space. Our words of advice? Use chalk paint for a matte finish that paints well over difficult-to-sand spots 🖌

Vicky of @shelley_cottage went for a minimalist look on her pine sideboard, and topped it off with LUNA 🌟

Feeling adventurous? Hand paint either side of the drawers, for a pleasant surprise every time you reach for your drawer.

3. Apply wallpaper

Make the most out of cut-offs from previous projects or old samples, by securing them on to your pine furniture. Simply apply mod-podge to your drawers and firmly press on your wallpaper panels. Then, seal with another layer of mod-podge.

Why not match your walls with your upcycled bedside tables, like Rachel? That’ll make your scheme cohesive, and elevate your pine drawers that much more 🌸

4. Layer materials

Not so keen on the plain fronts of your pine furniture? Arrange and glue paint stirring sticks for a herringbone-like effect. Charley of @thisgirldiys shows us how it’s done, on her pine chest of drawers 👀

Prefer more texture? Trim and align a handful of moulding, for a budget-friendly take on the reeding trend. That’ll add plenty of character to everything from pine dressing tables to sideboards.

Complete with hardware 🌟

Glammed-up pine furniture deserves an equally glam finishing touch. Have a browse of our trend-led designs to complete your upcycling project. Opt for a finish to complement, or contrast, with the new look of your pine chest of drawers 🤔

Our hardware is manufactured in the most eco-conscious materials and methods possible, so don’t worry – even this part of your upcycling project prioritises the planet ♻

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Harriet - The Cornish Rae (@the.cornish.rae.home)

Here’s how to install hardware on your pine furniture 🛠

Now, all that’s left to do is to start upcycling. Don’t forget to share the process by tagging us at @plankhardware 📽

---