Finely refurbished furniture

Westminster Furniture’s Kim Murdoch is an artist when it comes to giving old pieces a beautiful new lease of life.

ALITTLE bit of TLC can completely transform an old, tired piece of furniture, says Kim Murdoch. The owner of Wainuiomata business Westminster Furniture has a bit of experience in the area, having spent 40 years doing furniture repairs, restoration, upholstery repairs and reupholstering, the last 15 of those in his own business.

From his specially built workshop at his home he can be working on fixing a broken picture frame, a scratched dining table top or an antique chair that has a broken leg through to reupholstering sofas and dining chairs, or even seats for caravans and boats, jobs that can sometimes take days or even weeks to complete.

While he describes himself as an upholsterer, he considers himself more of a furniture artist.

‘‘On my business cards it says artistic transformations and that’s exactly what it is – I transform ratty, old, tiredlooking bits of furniture into gorgeous items that people have as a showpiece in their homes. The before and after can look so different it’s hard to imagine it’s the same piece sometimes.’’

Kim gives the example of a European beech sideboard that had gone ‘‘yellow’’ mainly due to age and sun.

‘‘It was a beautiful sideboard, I completely stripped it back and whitewashed it, and with a coat of semi-gloss finish on it, it came up really nice. It was transformed into a modern piece with lots of character.’’

Another example is a dining table and its eight accompanying chairs. He stripped them of their dark, chocolate brown colour, applied a whitewash stain and a clear finish.

‘‘Whitewash is one of the latest trends. I honestly think it’s worth thinking about refinishing a piece of furniture rather than getting rid of it and starting again.’’

Kim believes people are too quick to get rid of old furniture rather than upcycle it.

‘‘Sadly, it’s one of the downfalls of today, people don’t seem to care or appreciate the older styles of furniture that have character, a lot of which is made from traditional native timbers.’’

Kim recalls a trip to the dump a few years back in his signwritten ute.

‘‘The digger driver came over and said he wished I’d turned up 10 minutes earlier, he’d just run over half a dozen beautiful pieces of oak furniture, tallboys and dressers all with lovely handles too. By the time I’d got there it was all but kindling.

‘‘That’s a nightmare, being passionate about what I do, I feel quite sad when things like that happen.’’

More often than not, he says, he’s a rescuer of furniture.

‘‘Some people rescue animals, but I rescue furniture!

‘‘I can’t resist doing it and as a result I have collected quite a few pieces that are now just waiting for the day they will be restored.’’

Just recently he rescued an old, but good quality, solid wood arm chair from an Upper Hutt couple who were about to throw it out.