linen press | Le Manoir Saint Gervais

Last week the weather was finally cool enough to tackle the second component of the linen press. I set myself up in the shade of the grape vine and cleaned down the entire frame, removed the warn blue paper that was lining the linen drawers and then waxed all the parts.

Unlike the bottom section, which has the appearance of a polished Victorian set of pine drawers, the top component is a simple box structure with ‘open-fronted’ sliding drawers where linen would have been placed in olden times. The wood is untreated as this part of the linen press is intended to be hidden behind two veneered doors. I cleaned and waxed the doors and stored them in the garage as I wont be able to add these until the base and top frames are cleaned up and in situ. That’s probably a job for next week as I still need to treat those parts for wood worm first.

Below are a few pictures of work in progress as well as the finished product on top of the already renovated pine drawers. When everything is finished and assembled it will be placed in the barn/workshop at The Little Grange. SCH

I decided this is the week to begin work on the linen press… the sun is shining and there is no chance of rain!

The overall condition of the wood wasn’t too bad but there were certainly bits of veneer falling off and a couple of front strips that had come off altogether (although thankfully they had been left inside the furniture). Oh, and a small case of woodworm that needed treating.

The first thing to do was give the draws and box frame a good clean with a damp cloth and a bit of elbow grease; after that I used wood glue, clamps and masking tape to fix back the veneer. Having left the glue to dry overnight, I then waxed everything so that the wood was better protected and shone.

The drawers also needed cleaning inside as there was a warn blue lining in each made of paper. I used a similar method to removing old wallpaper while trying not to make the wood too wet. I am very happy with the result; the wood has a zebra-like grain running through it which makes for an interesting effect! SCH