Homes Homes HOMES!

Choosing Your Style of White Chest of Drawers

When you first walk in to a showroom or an auction house, how are you supposed to tell whether or not a simple white chest of drawers is actually a high quality piece with a few hundred years of history and tales of wars to tell in its knots? Well, the truth is that without stripping the paint right off it there is no way of telling and even then you would be hard pressed to prove that something was an authentic antique.

The usual signs could be there, like the jointing systems and the way in which the drawers are put together and in all fairness when something is stripped back you can usually tell if repairs have taken place because of the colour of the replacement wood. There are lots and lots of tell-tale signs that an expert in the business would recognise.

In some periods, wooden nails were used before metals and then some metals were used before others. If you were just looking for something functional then you may not care that something is an imitation John Townsend and if an old painted white chest of drawers hailed from the Chippendale era. On the other hand you may like to find a bargain and reclaiming some old painted furniture is a great pastime.

Lots of people have seen the antiques programs on the television where people trawl the antique markets and hope to make a small profit by buying and selling. In the real world where people who trade in antiques carve out a living for themselves, a certain amount of work is customary. In all fairness stripping a white chest of drawers back to the bare wood is no easy task and anyone would be disappointed if they made no money out of it.

Thankfully there are certain styles to look for and things that you will instantly recognise as quality after a few short visits to you local antiques dealer. To start with, most of the old furniture that people like is not the same as your flat pack fare from your out of town DIY store. Often you would find drawers that have a curved front that may be from a certain period that is desirable.

Other times you may notice that the feet of the drawers are some sort of ornate carved affair that would put the Royal wedding carriage to shame. The trouble is that these could have been added at any time and they could make a cheap white chest of drawers fool many an unsuspecting customer. The trick is to always do your research before you jump in feet first (excuse the pun).

Underfloor Critical for a Professionally Finished Kahrs Flooring

The sleek natural beauty and seamless design of laminate flooring systems such as Kahrs flooring are what attracts you to purchase these total flooring solutions. Given the continual advances in laminate flooring technology, focused on improving the ease of installation, there's no reason why you can't achieve the professional look of the showroom.

 

But for you to make that ultimate design statement with your new flooring, you need to focus on the installation; and underfloor preparation is the vital foundation of getting the job done right. Then you will find your living spaces transformed and rejuvenated, with a look both natural and modern, and the envy of your friends.

 

The first thing you need to address in the preparation of the underfloor surface is its flatness. Most commonly the underfloor is a concrete screed that will have been pre-levelled and perfectly flat. If the concrete looks prepared and patterned, there is a good chance it will already have been both levelled and flattened. If the concrete looks rough or 'raw' then you should check for the overall flatness of the floor using a level.

 

This can be as simple as using a long level - an aluminium squared rod – between 6 and 12 feet in length. You simply lay this across the surface in question, checking for gaps under your rod - anything more than 3 or 4mm (1/8th of an inch) and you may need to look to re-levelling the floor. That can be achieved by grinding away any obvious small raised patches, or using a self-levelling compound.

 

Such compounds are typically latex based, and in order to guarantee a good fix to the underfloor, a latex primer should be painted over the area to be levelled. You should focus the compound on those areas your inspection has identified as troughs. Be prepared to move fast- self-levelling compounds dry within 30 minutes, so apply and feather quickly.

 

The above techniques of checking for the flatness of the underfloor, and then levelling if needed, can also be applied to wooden boarded floors as well. These often warp around the supporting joists, and so can be quite uneven. But in both cases it is essential that the self-levelling compound is allowed to dry. Laminate floors are wood based, and so hygroscopic- they absorb moisture readily. This can cause them to warp, and swell, if the underfloor is not totally dry.

 

Once you have a level surface, it is a good idea to install an underlay as well- this will protect the flooring, smooth out any roughness, and provide extra insulation. The reason this is so important is that the smooth seamless finish that will show off your Kahrs flooring to best effect relies on a level flat substrate. If that underfloor is bumpy, then your laminate flooring w