Complete Tutorial on Bringing a Curio Back to Life

Curios are not as popular as they used to be. I think people tend to find that they look old and outdated. However, it doesn’t have to be that way! There are so many fun ways to bringing a curio back to life. Do you remember me telling you about my DIY competition for the grand opening of Deseret Industries? The winner gets to donate to a charity of their choice-mine is the Underground Railroad. They are an awesome group that helps rescue kids from sex trafficking all over the world. Well, I tackled a DIY Curio update for this event and those tips are here for you too.

This is the piece from the DI that I picked out for the grand opening. See? Old fashioned curio needing a desperate update!

And this is what my end result looked like! Beautifully updated and repurposed for much better use.

View our complete video here

Bringing a Curio Back to Life (affiliate links)

1. Remove all the doors and hardware including hinges and door latches. I also removed the glass from the doors and took off the back and the mirrors.
2. Sand everything down using a 220 grit sand paper and then wipe and vacuum any remaining dust off
3. When everything is taken apart, cut down the bead board to fit where the glass on the sides and the 2 bottom doors used to be.
4. To hold the bead board in place I used the previous clasps that held the glass in place.
5. I wanted to reuse the old back so I carefully used a putty knife to pry the mirror off the backing.
6. Cut the bead board the same size as the mirror for the back.
7. To install the new back, I used double sided sticky tape to stick the the backing and bead board together and hold the bead board in its place while I screwed the back in place.
8. Next, I used 1/2 ” thick MDF to make new shelves as the old curio didn’t come with shelves.
9. After everything is cut it is time to paint! I used Chalky Chicks Old Lace Paint in my Erlex HV5500 paint sprayer
10. After the paint is dry, I added chicken wire. I used my upholstery staple gun to attach the chicken wire.
11. Use tin snips to remove any excess chicken wire.
12. Assemble all the pieces back together. Make sure to double check that you are putting the hinges back on correctly.
13. Once everything is back together, do any touch ups needed.
14. Then seal it all with Amy Howard’s Bee’s Wax.

if you are wanting to give that old curio a much needed update, give this a try!! It’s simple and significantly less than purchasing a whole new piece of furniture.

Have fun bringing a curio back to life!

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