PROJECT No1 Restoring These Fantastic Victorian Drawers

Hello, this is our first project. A two over three set of Victorian pint drawers. You can see that they've seen better days but we feel that with a little love and care we can breathe new life into them. They have seen quite a bit of life and been knocked around a little bit. This can be seen by the dents and scars that they now bear, but some of these add to their charm. At the moment we're pretty confident that it will be quite easy, we just hope that the weather is kind to us as we haven't sorted out the garage yet and we're planning to do most of the work outside. Step number one is to clean them down. We started with wiping them down with a mix of Murphy's wood cleaner and water. This wood cleaner allowed us to clean up all the grime cobwebs and dust that have gathered over the years. It is a super gentle mixture that doesn't damage the wood and has the added bonus of smelling pretty good too. On some of the other parts wire wool and white spirits were used to dark patches and more stubborn stains. This is our first project and we were relying on doing most of the work outside. The sanding was the main part of this, however the February weather had other plans. Rain, rain, rain. It didn't seem to stop raining at all in February. This caused some lengthy delays and other challenges. February 2026 has turned out to be one of the wettest on record. Apparently the UK experienced 40 days of consecutive rain in January and February alone. According to the news it was caused by a blocked weather pattern. February 2026 holds the record for the lowest amount of recorded sunshine hours too. To add to the rain it was oftentimes very cold and sanding outside on the days when it wasn't raining in minus four was not fun. Finally the rain lifted and the sunshine, much like the local wildlife, started to creep back in. Now that the weather had both dried up and warmed up in equal measures we got back to work and started sanding in earnest. We started off with 180 grit on both the orbital sander and the detailed sander, then moving up to 240 grit to get a nice smooth finish without taking out all of the dents and scratches that give the drawers character. With so many fiddly bits to do it took a while even with the two sanders. The six draw knobs though had to be done by hand and were especially time consuming. At least it seemed that way at the time but this could have been compounded by the frustration of all the time that we had lost during the weeks of rain. There were a few bits that needed to be sorted out. This corner needed some treatment. We used a wood hardener. This was liberally applied and left to dry for at least two hours. This corner seemed to be where most of the problems were. As you can see it was also loose. It was decided that gluing it would be the best way to go. Wood glue was liberally applied and worked into the gap between the carcass and the top and then clamped into place to dry overnight. The drawer stops were missing in several places and needed to be replaced. In some places the drawers themselves had big dents in them where they had been shut pretty roughly over the years. This meant that the drawers were actually going in too far so we opted in some places to move the stops so that they have new contact point. On other ones we did a small patch repair on the drawer itself. However whilst concentrating on doing the repairs and being aware of all the time that had been lost due to the weeks of rain delays and cold weather we forgot to film those bits. After all the repairs and sanding the drawers needed one last clean before waxing. Using a microfiber cloth and water they were thoroughly wiped down. It was then time to finish the wood. We opted to preserve the natural beauty of the wood with colour on beeswax rather than shiny varnish. If we're honest we didn't expect this to be quite as hard as it was. The application of the wax was super easy. We applied it and let it soak in for two hours then we buffed it. We did this with microfiber cloths and it was harder than we think it should have been. With tired arms and plenty of time to talk whilst buffing we had several conversations about getting a buffing attachment for the drill and next time I'm sure we will just to make life easier. Let's remind ourselves of what they look like when we got them. They are full of potential but in pretty rough shape and here they are all finished and we think looking pretty great. All that remains to be done is to find them a new home. To see where we list our projects for sale you can find links in the We would really appreciate it if you would like and subscribe. We are super new and all the help is gratefully received. Now that these drills are finished it's on to project number two.