An antique Victorian mahogany linen press comprising a two-door top cupboard sitting on a base chest of drawers. The base chest has a pair of top drawers above two wide drawers.  It sits on four tall turned feet. The top cabinet has a pair of panelled doors and a moulded cornice above. The cabinet has fixed shelves.

Our lovely customer Ann contacted us to ask if we could refresh her old linen press. Over previous generations it had acquired coat after coat of gloss paint of varying hues both inside and out, it had worked its way into a farm outbuilding where it was used for storage for many years. It was in a pretty sorry state! When it arrived in the Fairy workshops we realised that this was going to be a long labour of love. Every day for several weeks the Practical Fairy spent time scraping and carefully melting the layers of old paint away. (We would never use harsh chemical strippers on items in our workshops - that is no way to treat good furniture! Ask us on this, we will tell you about the lasting damage that can be done!) Once the paint was off inside and out, we made a number of repairs and carefully sanded everything.

Multi-coat paint finish:

• Thorough preparation
• professionally spray painted inside and out
• two coats shellac based primer
• two coat water based acrylic resin undercoat in dark tones
• three coats water based acrylic satin; the colour is 'Hague Blue'
• one coat water-based satin varnish.

We refitted the original door pulls.  Ann wanted the drawer handles to be an exact match for her new kitchen so she gave us the drawer pulls to fit. The original locks to the doors no longer worked so we fitted roller catches.

We delivered the press back to Ann's new house and she was delighted with the finished result.

Ann operates a professional equine laundry, specialising in horse rug cleaning, reproofing and repair.  Please take a look at her website Ricknall Rugs