Before You Touch It, Learn What You Have

Set the chest of drawers in good light and look at it properly before you reach for the sandpaper. A Victorian mahogany piece and a 1930s oak-veneer bedroom suite want very different treatment, and a pine dresser that has been painted three times over is a different project again. Check the undersides, the backs and the drawer bottoms — they rarely lie, and they will tell you what the carcass is actually made of. Run your fingers across the surface, too. If the finish is dull but intact, you are reviving rather than refinishing, and that is nearly always the right answer.

Patina — the softened colour, the worn edges, the dark rings where hands have rested for a century — cannot be recreated. Whatever you do next, the aim is to lose as little of it as possible.

Clean Gently and Deal With Loose Bits

Most tired furniture is simply filthy rather than damaged. A cloth wrung out in warm water with a little mild soap flakes will lift decades of grime, but dry each area immediately afterwards. Never let water sit on veneer, and never slosh it around joints, which will swell and then shrink. For greasy buildup, a cloth dampened with white spirit works well on most polished surfaces.

Then work through the faults methodically:

• Wobbly joints: old hide glue is reversible. Warm the joint gently and work fresh glue in with a thin blade, then clamp and leave for a full day. Hide glue is preferable on anything old because it can be undone later by the next owner.
• Lifting veneer: slide glue underneath with a craft knife, press flat, and run a warm iron over brown paper to reactivate it. Weigh it down overnight.
• Woodworm: fine dust beneath fresh holes means it may still be active, so treat it before you do anything cosmetic. Old, dead holes need no treatment but can be filled with wax filler matched to the wood.
• Stiff drawers: do not plane the sides. Rub candle wax or a sliver of soap along the runners and the drawer will glide again.

Do You Strip It? Usually Not

Stripping is the single most common mistake. Caustic dip stripping raises the grain, bleaches colour from the timber and can loosen inlay, and a heat gun scorches edges that took a hundred years to soften. Chemicals are just as aggressive. Unless the finish is flaking away in sheets, or the wood beneath is sound and you genuinely want to oil it, leave the old surface alone.

Where stripping is unavoidable, use a methylated-spirits-based stripper rather than caustic, test on the back first, and work in small sections. Layers of dark 1960s and 1970s stain often soften with nothing more than a cloth and methylated spirits. If a patch test on a hidden area turns tacky and lifts colour, the original finish is shellac — French polish — and it can almost certainly be saved rather than removed.

Finishes That Flatter Old Timber

Matching the finish to the piece matters more than any single product. A few reliable approaches:

• Wax: a blend of beeswax and turpentine, applied in very thin coats and buffed hard with a brush or cloth, feeds dry timber and deepens colour without building a plastic sheen. Two thin coats beat one thick one every time.
• Oil: Danish or boiled linseed oil suits dry, open-grained oak and pine. Wipe on, let it sit, wipe the surplus away, and repeat after a day. Never leave wet oil pooling on the surface.
• French polish: for mahogany, walnut and anything with a mirror-like original finish. A light burnishing with 0000-grade wire wool and methylated spirits will often re-amalgamate a crazed surface beautifully.
• Paint: reserved for pieces that are already painted or for plain, honest pine. Chalk and clay paints suit old farmhouse furniture, sealed afterwards with wax. Think carefully before painting good veneer or inlay, as it is very hard to undo.

Do not varnish over wax, and do not wax fresh oil until it has fully cured.

Handles, Escutcheons and Small Details

The hardware is where character lives. Keep original handles wherever possible, even if they are dented — replacements rarely sit in the same worn holes or match the timber's tone. Clean brass with soapy water first and reach for metal polish only if you want a bright finish, remembering that over-polishing strips the dark patina from the recesses that makes old brass look old.

If something is genuinely missing, hunt for period-correct escutcheons and knobs at fairs and house clearance sales, and keep a small box of spares. Where screw holes have worn oval, glue in a sliver of matching wood, let it set, and drill a fresh pilot hole. It is a ten-minute fix that will outlast you.

Caring for It Afterwards

Keep the piece out of direct sunlight and away from radiators, which dry joints and crack veneer faster than anything else. Dust with a soft cloth, rewax once or twice a year, and lift rather than drag it when you move it — always by the carcass, never by the top or an open drawer.

Drawers that smell fusty respond well to a saucer of bicarbonate of soda left inside for a week, or a handful of dry coffee grounds. Line the bottoms with baize if you like, but keep the old paper if it is there; labels and maker's stamps are part of the history and add interest to the piece.

Done carefully, a morning's work will give you a chest that looks cared for rather than restored — and that is exactly the point.