Tuesday 25 April 2017

Fixing old furniture with new technology...

Happy spring everyone,
It is a bit chilly despite the sun shining most days, so I am enjoying sewing and crafting in my spare time. I am preparing activities for my daughter's birthday party, cleaning and fixing things around the house... so it was just timely to receive a Create & Craft kit from Sugru (which incidentally is crowdfunding further investment).

Antiques purists close your eyes now, because I am going to show pictures of a fix on a 150 year old wardrobe my father restored in his Italian workshop several years ago. It is all very well to be authentic but we did not know what to buy to fix it that would hold. The only professional option would have been welding.

These are pewter handles and the round element holding the handle had detached itself. It would have been a case of welding to fix it, there is no hole to insert a screw or other DIY equivalent. We took a big breath and my partner opened Sugru silver, carefully spread it on the shallow hole that held the supporting bit and then built a collar around the supporting bit to fit it back in place. I took a close-up photo and you can hardly see the fix. It had to be a strong one as the drawer is heavy so when you pull the handles they have to hold... We left it 24 hours and it's holding. Hurrah!

Before the fix
After the fix

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