So I am decorating one of the kids old bedrooms since he has now moved on, so Terrorist can now have his own room. I've spent a damn fortune, stressed myself out to the max to get all the stuff for his room so it will be perfect and he will love it.
I've just been informed that since the room is being decorated for 'me' it's my job to remove all the crap from the room and clean it down so that it is ready to be decorated this weekend and have all of Terrorists stuff in there.
To my horror I've noticed that the 12yr old kid that has just left the house has DESTROYED the fitted wardrobes, I think there's a high possibility that I'm going to have some sort of break down because I am beyond annoyed right now, that in my head NO matter what I do to Terrorists room, even though he has a new bed, side tables, drawers, curains the lot the room is still going to look like a freaking tramps den because of this child who destroys everything.
So what I need is any suggestions that I can do to these wardrobes (I don't have money to replace them) besically they're fitted wardrobes that run on either side of the room, 4 double wardrobes, so 8 doors in total and two large desks. The kid has shoved something down the side of the seam of the doors and pulled the wood off them so it's basically the chipboard (is it called chip board?) that's displayed, so because of that painting them is out of the question. He's pulled off every drawer front (6 drawers in total) on the desks and they're compleatley ruined - I don't think there's any way to fix them at all. And has also pulled the wood off the top of the desk too.
Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated - I have a week to have the room decorated before Terrorist is back and limited funds - Really Really limited.
When you say "pulled the wood" - I'm assuming you mean the thin veneer - is the underlying chipboard or msg still solid? If that's the case, you could possibly get some iron on plastic, you can certainly get such material for doing the edges of units, but from what you're describing I would be thinking of pain ting it,but I'm not sure why you think that can't be done? How about you stick some photos in your profile?
When you say "pulled the wood" - I'm assuming you mean the thin veneer - is the underlying chipboard or msg still solid? If that's the case, you could possibly get some iron on plastic, you can certainly get such material for doing the edges of units, but from what you're describing I would be thinking of pain ting it,but I'm not sure why you think that can't be done? How about you stick some photos in your profile?
I'm thinking the painting can't be done because it's the chipboard that's exposed on a lot of it and with painting it wouldn't it just look uneven?
Not sure about this but perhaps you could get some thin veneer sheets and glue them to the chip board, some veneer even comes in pre-glued "strips" that can be attached to a number of surfaces with the help of a bit of heat a normal iron can provide. The result may not be perfect but with a bit of luck... well, it could last for a while. Veneer sheets are not even that pricey.
Well, only you know how uneven it is... I'm guessing some of the chip must have come off with the veneer... in that case I reckon Britons suggestion of buying fresh veneer is maybe the best option, but you might have to use wood filler to get a flat enough surface to glue it onto if there's chunks out of it... the melamine iron solution might not work so well in that case, because I think that's generally intended to go on msg which will be nice n smooth.... boy oh boy... sounds like a right old pain...... good luck
And darn... I wish my tablet wouldn't incorrect m d f into msg
Sticky-backed plastic - no doubt, that'll get pulled off in time too (unless he grows out of the detrauctive phase first!) but it's cheap and quite easy to do: you can get it from home-store type places, or on ebay, and it requires no skill - there are some funky sorts (like stick-on "blackboard" type things) and it will stick on unevern surfaces as I'm guessing your cupboard etc fronts might now be.
Or, if you're feeling really creative - collage: attack all magazines you have in the house, and use PVC glue to stick the pictures you cut out from them randomly but looking good (or just cut small scraps of different colours for a more abstract effect). For longevity, you can cover the finished decoupage with either clear stcky-backed plastic or a thin solution of PVC glue. It's very cheap to do, but does take blooming ages: maybe you could involve him in the process too, though, if he likes making things?
What about putting some wood filler in the ripped patches and then painting the whole thing? I Can provide some more specific instructions if youd like but I dont want to insult you if you already know what your doing!
The other option is getting some plywood or MDF cut to size and replacing the panels that are damaged. Most wood places will cut things down for you if you provide the dimensions you need and it shouldnt be too expensive.
English rose is right, self adhesive material, Fablon it's called! Bnq stock it, loads of different colours and patterns, we changed some plain melamine faced chipboard fitted wardrobes from plain wood effect to blue, looked great, cheap enough too x
Yeah, Wilkinsons do rolls of sticky back plastic, and they come in all different colours! It might be expensive depending on how many roles you would need. Maybe to keep the price down you could get some lining wall paper? It's thinner than normal wall paper, and just plain. You could then paint over it to make it look nice :)
other option is to take the doors off and replace with fabric panels - if you can use a sewing machine you can make them cheaply from duvet covers to match his bedding.
For the drawer fronts and desk top I would go for MDF and paint it, have fitted cupboards in one of the bedrooms here and the paint covers really well ( just emulsion nothing fancy or expensive)
I would also keep an eye on websites such as gumtree or freegle... You might get lucky and find somethings on there for free that could help make the fix the problem or replace it completely ..
Loads of great tips already so only one thing to add:
If you need filler to get it flat then get a pack with lots of grades of sandpaper. Filler is hard to get flat, but easy to sand. I'd asks friends to help as well if that's possible.