The furniture wax I’ve been using. £7 for a 500ml tin. It’s a natural wonder!
This wax has been an utter revelation to us! We were browsing round Wells Reclamation Yard (I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that we spend a fair bit of time there!) when we saw someone waxing one of their new bookshelves. The transformation was incredible – the shelves went from looking like a standard modern pine piece of furniture, to something that wouldn’t look out of place in an antiques shop (or indeed, a reclamation yard). I asked which colour they used and was told ‘Stripped pine’, which I bought, though there is a darker one as well. The first thing I tried it on was the plate racks (£45 each new, also from Wells Rec) and they immediately looked old.
It has literally opened up a whole new world of furniture that easily looks suitable for our old house and gave us the confidence to buy new pine to make the kitchen work surface, rather than paying double for wood from a reclamation yard. There is a downside: the results are a
Waxing the corner
bit unpredictable. As you can see from the photo of the corner; one piece of wood has stained smoothly, but the other piece that must have been planed against the grain or something, has gone very stripy. Some areas of wood seem to need a few layers of wax to get the right effect, but others look perfect after one. And honestly, at the end of the day, old oak would probably still look better, but we don’t have the budget for that.
After moving the cupboard to next the dresser, I needed something to put the baby belling cooker on (Rayburn coming this year with any luck), so, with no luck checking ebay and charity shops, we bought a pine table from Ikea for £35, and also stained it with the wax. So at least it looks nicer while I wait. We’ll probably use it on the new staircase and on bookcases
Waxing the table
when we get them. It’s great!
