Repaired haberdashery cupboard

Following on from my post about starting to repair this cupboard, I have now finished the repair of the haberdashery cupboard that was formerly used in my shed.

The chipboard sides of the cupboard had been weakened where they had sat on the ground in the damp.

They had puffed out and crumbled along the bottom 4 inches. Most of the veneer on the outside was still intact but it had separated from the body of the chipboard on one side just along that lower 4 inch band.

The first job was to pull the outer edges back in alignment with the frame. I drilled and carved out a channel next to the biscuit joint and then glued and clamped the edges in to place. I put paper between the batten used to protect the cupboard from the clamp. The paper was to avoid the batten getting stuck to the outside of the cupboard.

The next task was to stabilise the edges. I rubbed off the worst of the loose chips and then coated the inside faces with lots of watered down PVA type white wood glue. 50:50 water and PVA plus a dash of dishwasher rinse aid as a surfactant to break the surface tension so it flows more easily.

I left it a few days to ensure it was thoroughly dry. The chipboard was then stable enough to glue a plank of timber on the inside of each edge to give it strength to stand on. As the sides were very uneven I used lots of 'No More Nails' from a mastic gun as the adhesive and filler.

Again that was left for a few days to go off.

I thought about cutting away the outside veneer and chipboard and insetting some timber but it was looking more stable than I expected and as this edge is barely seen I decided to carry on with stabilising the chipboard.

Lots more 50:50 water and white glue brushed as far in to the chipboard as possible and some neat glue under the veneer and in the worse gaps. I clamped that lot tightly in place with some battens, again with a layer of paper between the surface and the batten.

I used some clamps to pull the sides as close to level as I could.

Much to my surprise when I released the clamps a few days later the puffy bottoms had been held nearly flush.

One side needed some filling with Isopon P38 which once sanded I disguised by painting a black band along the bottom on both sides to match the black inset panel that it already had on the front and which I had cleaned up and repainted.

The back panel did not need any essential repairs but I gave it some white glue where the plywood was coming apart just to stop it getting worse. As I was doing that I found the timber along the back edge was crumbling. As that was out of sight I simply cut that back to good timber coated with my watered down glue mix and filled with Isopon P38.

I had filled a few holes in the sides which I now sanded before wax polishing.

Shelley and I carried it in to the study. Our house is not very big and the cupboard is taller than all of our doors! There was only one possible route, that was, in the back door, through the kitchen, a three point turn in the living room to align it with the door to the study and then straight across the hall in to the study.

Once in the study that room needed a complete re-arrange to have the haberdashery cupboard where it looked best and did not block everything else!