It’s always fascinating to see people whenever they successfully restore the beauty of something like an old artifact.
From some old rusty and deteriorating piece to a shining shimmering work of patience and diligence.
When talking about beautifully made restoration works, Jay Zaluski is perhaps a name to remember.
He has a YouTube channel called ‘Flippingdrawers,’ and his content mainly focuses on restoring all sorts of stuff that are old, and oftentimes, broken.
He’s already restored different furniture like chest drawers, and different types of tables, cabinets, and chairs. Zaluski is like a ‘fairy godmother’ because he can turn an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.
Turning ugly to beauty.
In a video he uploaded to his YouTube channel, Zaluski found an old tea trolley and decided to give it a makeover. The vintage tea trolley was made of oak and as expected, it’s already past its pristine days.
All of its wheels and hinges were squeaky and covered in thick layers of rust. It’s also damaged by woodworms and there were deep stains all over.
Restoring a piece of furniture in such condition might look impossible to some but to Zaluski, it’s rather a challenge that he wholeheartedly accepted.
First, he used a dust blower to remove, of course, dust and some webs on the tea trolley. In fact, he found some “vintage chewing gum” when he was just starting the cleaning process.
He wished to sand and apply varnish on it that’s why he decided to take the parts of the entire tea trolley apart.
Restoring while preserving.
One notable thing about Zaluski is that he always makes it a habit to keep the original parts of his restoration subjects.
He doesn’t want replacing parts maybe because he doesn’t want to take away the history of an old artifact.
By the way, the tea trolley started in Victorian England in the late 1800s, used by upper-class ladies at home for serving tea and snacks. It became popular and crossed the ocean to the United States.
But during the 1920s, when the U.S. banned alcohol (Prohibition), it turned into a fancy cocktail cart for people to secretly serve drinks.
Now, it’s making a comeback, adding elegance and usefulness to modern entertainment.
He soaked the screws and hinges in a rust remover compound and didn’t touch the wheels of the tea trolley because it could seriously damage its legs. Going through the old varnish, Zaluski used a steel scraper and sander.
Polishing, sanding, and scraping.
Zaluski was very keen on spotting deep-seated stains on the tea trolley.
Thankfully, with the help of his heavy-duty sander and oxalic acid, he managed to literally remove all the stains.
He also treated the holes made by woodworms to avoid any possible damage in the future.
From the top down to the bottom and all the sides, not even a single spot was left unnoticed.
It’s obvious that Zaluski truly loves what he is doing and he always gives his 100% in each of his restoration projects.
Even the narrow grooves on the tea trolley didn’t escape his eyes. To clean them, he scraped them off using a wire brush.
In the end, he managed to successfully and beautifully restore the tea trolley. He even added some details to make it more aesthetic and elegant-looking.
Watch the video below to see the outcome of Zaluski’s tea trolley restoration project!
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