Antique Piano Bench

Bench Before

Made of gorgeous walnut, this antique piano bench had seen many years of use and had the scratches to show for it. The wood was in pretty good shape, considering how old this bench was. The seat itself had been covered with fabric at least 2 times, each time adding a layer to the old instead of tearing off the fabric beneath.

The top fabric layer had a 1980's look, when mauves and pale

Bench After

blue and peach were frequently used together. The fabric beneath that had been a stained off white with bluish flowers, probably dating back to 1966. Yet beneath that layer of fabric was the "original," yellow, which was so deteriorated it crumbled as it was stuck to the rotted foam cushion it was stuck to.

Once I had removed the fabric, I realized that even though this bench seat cushion had been recovered three times, the very original seat had actually been caning, the splines still in place but the caning completely removed. The tell tale signs of caning were the holes that permanently left shadows on top of the wood. This was exciting because I instantly knew how I wanted this bench to look...back to the original caning, but first I had to tedious task of stripping the old finish from this lovely old piece to bring back the glorious wood hidden beneath a century of old stain, scratches and grime.

My pet peeve in any refinishing job are spindles. While lovely and full of character, anyone who has ever had to strip spindles knows of what I speak. There is no "fast" way to remove old stain from spindles. You have to apply stripper over and over while painstakingly using a putty knife, brass brush, steel wool to get rid of the goo, then sandpaper to smooth the cleaned wood finish. This bench was no exception. One spindle at a time, slow, tedious work. (Thank God for audiobooks!) When the last of the old stain and varnish is removed (sticky, messy work), the fun part begins. I chose walnut stain to bring out the natural tones in the wood, which was also walnut.

After the stain had completely dried, I reinstalled the standard caning which was originally used on this bench and then applied the polyurethane, leaving the caning alone to age naturally. Caning was the right choice for this old bench as it looked like it was supposed to look when it was made, which I guess to be around the turn of the last century. Another job well done...

(This was the first of four antiques I had restored over a period of four weeks. Check out the other pieces listed below:
http://finalefurniture.blogspot.com/2017/04/antique-secretary.html#more
http://finalefurniture.blogspot.com/2017/04/artistic-end-table.html
http://finalefurniture.blogspot.com/2017/04/antique-writing-desk.html