One of the most popular items sold at swap meets is furniture. Chairs, desks, dressers, TV stands - all have a selling value. But many need to be fixed up to get a good price. The upholstery may be torn, or a coffee table surface may have burns. End table and desks often get water marks and spots.
Take a look at the furniture you have. Determine what it's made of and how it was finished. Sometimes it may not be worth the time and expense to refinish, but often you can turn a used piece into a showroom item.
Remove dirt and wax by cleaning. Wipe the surface with turpentine, mineral spirits or wax remover. This will show you where the real problems lie.
Maybe a chair needs to be recaned, or a child's dresser could use some bright decals - there are many ways to fix up old furniture with little effort.
Sometimes you can make patches, bleach out stains, reglue loose joints or cracks. New handles or drawer pulls will spruce up a useful piece of furniture.
If the piece is already painted, you might scratch a spot from underneath to determine if it's hardwood. If you know furniture and are good at restoring, you may remove the paint and refinish. If you're not so versatile with wood, you can repaint.
But don't repaint a piece of wood furniture that has never been painted. You could ruin it. You'll be better off refinishing it to increase its value. You can determine if the surface was finished with shellac, lacquer or varnish, and you can do spot touch-ups and repairs.
If you refinish, you may need to strip the surface of the coatings already on, and re-stain and varnish the piece.
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?RAYMONDE WRIGHT
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