Remember when we went to the Springfield, Ohio Extravaganza?  And we brought home SEVERAL pieces?  Gahhhhhh.  That was the most fun we’ve had in a long time.  I’m not sure if I shared this, but we went on Friday, the day it opened.  Our tickets were good through the entire weekend.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous… 60s and sunny.  We always head down on Thursday afternoons and stay the night because we are way too sour in the morning to get up early and drive.  Our friends from our home town met us there at the hotel and spent the night also.  We shopped all day Friday and were completely exhausted.  We ended up leaving before them because they are shop till you drop type of girls, plus I had a work commitment so I couldn’t be in the middle of a flea market to fulfill that.

Saturday morning I jokingly sent them a text and said, “Are you ready to go back and shop?”  They said, “We left something in the hotel room… we were just trying to figure out if we should have them send it to us or go back and get it Sunday.”  ????  Not going to lie, I got a little excited thinking about possibly heading back to the flea market.  She text us Saturday night and said they are going to leave on Sunday morning and we were welcome to go.

How to Clean Antique Furniture

Well, of course, we went.  They drove their truck and we had a SAFE WORD…. it was “UNCLE” just in case one of us was dead tired and wanted to leave.  We found a few more fun items on Sunday, including another small hutch I have never shown YET.  But I will soon.

When we were there on Friday, we found the cutest hutch that has the name PARKER stenciled on the front of the drawer.  It’s a smaller hutch so we figured it would be perfect here in the rental for a change of pace because we want to switch things around a bit.  Roy, the guy who had the booth, said it just came out of the barn.  Oh… and the only reason I know his name was Roy was because the girl who was helping him at the booth yelled his name over and over and over.  Roy was a bad boy and didn’t have anything marked.  And, I could tell she was very irritated.  ????

This little Parker cabinet was not only fresh out of the barn, but it had so much dirt and nastiness inside.  And it smelled like a …. BARN.

Step One

We didn’t want to fill our vacuum with the stinky dirt and mouse turds.  So we scooped everything out with a dustpan.  When I say there was A LOT of dirt… there were piles.

Step Two

We mixed some laundry detergent and some bleach together in a bucket and cleaned it really well with steel wool.   We washed the inside and the outside, front and back, three times.  And then sprayed the entire antique piece with a garden hose to remove the cleaning solution.  Normally once would be enough but this was VERY STINKY.  ????  ????  ???? ????

Step Three

This antique piece had a bunch of grease and oil on spots.  We don’t do this with every antique piece we buy and clean.  But we used Zep 505 Degreaser on those oil spots.  Spray it on, let it set, and wash off.  It works like a charm.

We let this cabinet set outside on our porch for about three days to make sure it was dry.  Also, the fresh air did wonders, too.

Step Four

This is another step we don’t do with every antique piece, obviously.  But this one was painted.  The paint was chipping which is good because we love chippy pieces.  But we wanted to seal it.  We lightly sanded the entire piece with 120 grit sand paper to remove all of the chips of paint that were loose.  We sanded every inch of this piece including the inside and the back.  And, then we wiped it all off really well with a clean soft cloth.

Step Five

Whenever we have chippy pieces like this one, we like to coat the entire thing with some type of sealer.  Deb grabbed this Varathane Spar Urethane water based sealer in a satin finish the last time and we LOVE it.  It dries so quickly.  We coated the entire piece including the back.  Not only does it protect the chippy goodness of the piece, but it seals in any other odor that may be lurking.  Which after all of the above steps, I didn’t notice any.

You probably noticed that the top doors are missing in this photos.  Deb removed the top and the bottom doors to repair them.  We loved the color of the wood on the inside so much that I told her not to put the top back on.  I wanted to use this to display some of my antique dishes that I collect rather than as a storage piece.

So there you have it.  This is how we clean our antique furniture that has sat in a barn for years.