More about the wardrobe

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I promised to tell you more about the wardrobe… I wanted a small wardrobe or something to put in one of the bedrooms of my place in Wales. Almost all the furniture is either Victorian or early 20th century, much of it is the original from this house, so I wanted something of the same sort. But I didn’t need anything too big, as the place is set up for us or friends to stay in for short visits, so a big old wardrobe would be unnecessary and take up too much space. After keeping an eye out for a while I found one on – you guessed it – Freegle. A nasty-looking thing that was destined for the tip. As you can see on the left it was painted a horrible shade of misery and then someone had tried to ‘brighten it up’ by drawing around the mouldings with a blue marker pen. But it was the sort of size I wanted and it was solid wood, oak as it turned out. I brought it here and got it inside (had to do that on my own because if we were all in the car, the wardrobe wouldn’t fit) and then cleaned it up – that took quite a few goes. Then when the weather was fine I attacked it with paint stripper – some fruit-based stuff we already had, which worked really well. Once all the paint was off though it still seemed to have a layer of patchy black stuff underneath, so more scrubbing and scraping followed, and then sandpapering, which I confess I don’t have the patience to do as well as it should be done. Finally, with help from Little One and friend’s husband, we gave it two coats of varnish and on the right you can see the result. I know proper French polish would give a better finish but I figured if visitors are going to be staying it might get a bit knocked about and varnish would protect it better and not get damaged so easily. I’m really happy with the outcome and pleased I saved it from the tip, what do you think? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.