Antique Knitting Cabinet Redo

Knitting Cabinet Before

This was an unexpected estate sale find. I had seen a knitting

Knitting Cabinet After

cabinet such as this at an antique store in Kalamazoo when we went to the Art Fair the first weekend in June. It had sold for $180.00 as it was about 100 years old. This one had come from someone who had lived in St. Clair and was moving all the furniture out. I couldn't resist since it looked like it just needed a little bit of love. The only broken piece was the left handle on the top drawer, an easy fix. The cabinet was in excellent condition otherwise with its fluted and turned legs. Other than a bit of debris in the deep ends, it was fairly clean too. After I fixed the broken knob, I gave the entire cabinet a thorough sanding, and re-stained it with dark walnut, which brought out its natural walnut finish.

Art Deco Olive Wood Dresser

Dresser before

Dresser after restoration

When Jim and I came across this unique dresser we couldn't pass it up! Its character was a one-of-a-kind find and we both loved the excellent quality and details of this piece. The handles were all present (something rare in old dressers) and they had a unique art-deco style that appealed to us. Upon further examination, we discovered the dresser had two very long cracks on each side, one side being worse than the other. After we got it home we looked closer and discovered that this dresser had no veneer! Whatever that wood was, it has had been the construction of the dresser and was
about 7/8" thick. We had never seen anything like it. We knew we had a gem.

Once we began working on it, it was apparent that someone had already tried to remedy the worst crack, which was on the left side of the dresser, by nailing a long board on either side of it. This was probably done long before they had the pipe clamps used by carpenters nowadays. We knew that that board had to be removed so we could properly fix the dresser using glue and clamps, so Jim carefully removed that strip of wood and with glue and clamps, pulled the two sections together as far as they would go. After it had dried, he replace the inside strip with another one, using screws to fasten it. That crack wasn't going anywhere. He followed the same process on the right side of the dresser, but luckily that crack wasn't as visible as the other one and hadn't run the entire height of the dresser, so it was easier to repair and almost invisible when completed. Jim also replace the very thin trim molding at the top of the dresser and cleaned all the handles until they sparkled. We discovered them to be made out of brass, not uncommon for a dresser of this era as brass is easier to work with when creating a fine detailed stamped design such as this.

Handle after restoration

Handle before restoration

After the repairs were made it was my turn. I sanded the entire dresser and drawers as smooth as I could get it and then applied a red mahogany stain, bringing out the natural beauty of the wood. The next day I applied the first coat of semi-gloss polyurethane and the dresser started to shine. It was a gorgeous piece, to be sure. After I had finished the second coat and let it dry, Jim installed the now-clean handles. We couldn't believe the completed product! We were fortunate to have stumbled upon this one of a kind piece of furniture and are happy that a and his fiance had bought it for their new home!

Check out another great old dresser: http://finalefurniture.blogspot.com/2014/12/charlevoix-cherry-antique-dresser.html

Tulip Chair Meets Vanity Desk

Tulip Chair Before

I bought this chair for only $5.00 at a garage sale. I was undecided

Tulip Chair After

what to do with it, so I didn't touch it until a friend had approached me to restore an old vanity desk that had belonged to her grandmother. I told her "I have the perfect chair for that desk, too!" She said, "Great, I'll take it!" I had finished the desk and asked her what she'd like done with the chair. She wasn't sure, so I suggested painting it black. She loved the idea because she has a Marilyn Monroe (black and white) bedroom and since we couldn't match the wood to her vanity desk anyway, why not paint it black. It worked! The black really was the perfect choice with the fabric that she'd provided which matched

A Piano Bench Gets a New Look

Piano bench after

Piano Bench Before

I acquired this piano bench at an estate sale last summer for $7.00. It had a broken leg that had been haphazardly repaired with a large screw and nut, which looked horrible. There was no way I could repair that leg and stain it, so I opted for paint instead. I had used a dowel to repair the broken leg, then after the careful, artistic technique of using wood filler, I sanded the previously broken leg smooth and prepared the chair for painting. It took a couple of coats, but the results were great. Even I couldn't find the once broken leg! I found a very

Antique Secretary Desk & German Rocking Chair

Secretary After

Secretary Before

I had posted an ad for furniture restoration services and a man who lived near me called and asked if I was interested in restoring an antique secretary and a German rocking chair. He told me where he lived, so I said I could be over within a half hour. He had sold his house and was busy moving, so he didn't have time to work on these pieces. He'd already stripped off most of the paint from the secretary, but some paint remained as well as an very old layer of varnish. I gave him a price and told him I'd have them done in a couple of weeks. This is where experience is the best teacher. When I quoted him a price, I should have tripled it because the secretary alone took me about 3 weeks to strip and refinish. I had to remove the back and get inside all the slots, very difficult to do with such a dark piece of wood and such small spaces. But the final results

My Waterfall Cedar Chest

Cedar Chest Before Restoration

Cedar Chest After Restoration

A few summers ago I went to an estate sale right around the block from my house. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, so you can imagine my surprise when I found this gem in the basement, covered with Christmas items! I quicklyran upstairs and asked the woman how much she wanted for the cedar chest. My heart was racing as numbers ran through my head. Surely, she'd ask at least $75.00 for it as it was well worth it. Other than surface scratches, it was in mint condition. The shelf on the interior was broken and its bottom was missing, but I examined it closely and found no broken veneer or other broken wood on the exterior. The interior looked as new as the day it was made and smelled strongly of cedar. I was so engulfed in my thoughts, I thought I misinterpreted what the woman had said about where it came from. I was already envisioning this beautiful 1940's chest restored to mint condition.

I asked her again how much she wanted for it and she tilted her head and said, "I don't know, how about $5.00?" I said, "Sold!" So I paid her for the chest and told her I'd be back in an hour with my husband and son to pick it up. Then I headed home in anticipation after I had message my two guys to make sure they don't stop anywhere on their way home from work because I needed them to pick up an item I'd purchased. Andy came over around 5:00, shortly after Jim got home from work and we all headed over to the estate sale on "Love" street, appropriately named for my lovely cedar chest. They loaded it up in the van and poor Andy had to squeeze between the chest and the seats since we had to put my "stow and go" seats down, but for the short trip home, it wasn't a biggie.

The cedar chest went right into the spare bedroom, but I got to work on the broken shelf right away. I repaired the broken side and replaced the bottom, then put it aside until I could get to the chest. With all the other project I was working on, I didn't get to the chest last year. I did some research on Lane cedar chests and discovered that each one has a serial number on the bottom. If you reverse that serial number, you have the date the chest was made. Mine was made on September 6, 1944.

Finally, this May, I stripped it down and refinished it completely. I lined the shelf with green felt and put it back inside and loaded it up with linens. I am now proudly displaying my $5.00 cedar chest in my spare bedroom. It was a once in a lifetime find and I'll treasure it for a long time!

Interior prior to fixing shelf

Interior with shelf installed

Antique Window Bench

Window Bench Before

We love to go to Petoskey every year. Last year we spent a week

Window Bench After

there and discovered a very cool resale shop called "Gold Mine." It was indeed a gold mine as I found this lovely antique window bench for only $5.00! It had a very ugly seat and had definitely seen better days, but something about this bench called out to me and I had to have it. I knew it would require a great deal of work, but I was anxious to strip it to expose the wood I knew was a gorgeous mahogany buried underneath years of oxidation and abuse. There was also white paint streaming down one side of a bench leg which I knew would come off with the stripper. The seat fabric was not only ugly, it was not even a centered design. I envisioned something much more suitable for this special chair and knew that I'd find it when the time came to put the seat

together, but first I had a lot of work to do.

Bottom of Window Bench

Original straw cushion

When we came home from our vacation, Jim and I were curious what our unique window seat consisted of. After tearing away the seat cover, we discovered that it had been filled with straw! That alone showed us how old it was. This bench could very well be over 100 years old. The bottom of the bench was held together with one broken board and another cushion that was falling down. It was indeed in deplorable condition. It was also wobbly, and some of the joints were quite loose, so we pulled the entire bench apart and marked the sides so we knew how to put it together again when the time came. I had begun the lengthy process of stripping, but other things took precedence, so I had to put my bench project on hold. Summer turned to fall, which turned to winter which turned into a brand new year, 2012, and I didn't work on the bench until a few weeks ago when I had caught up on my other projects. I picked up where I had left off last year and finished stripping the old stain and varnish off the sections whih we had taken apart, Jim helped me put the pieces together.

The bench was originally constructed only of nails and dowels, another sign of its age. Once together and securely glued in place, I applied mahogany stain, which brought out the wood's natural beauty. I then applied three consecutive coats of semi-gloss polyurethane to protect the wood and bring out the chair's luster. Once the body of the chair was complete, it was time to make a new seat. Jim cut a piece of plywood that measured 15 x 17 and I stained it to match the bench. I bought a 1" high density foam cushion and covered the plywood with it and a layer of quilt batting.

So, about a week ago, I finished the project I had started last summer. My window bench was finally complete after almost a year! The end result speaks for itself. It's absolutely gorgeous! My favorite bench got a good home. A nice man who lives in Rochester bought it and it is now proudly displayed by his front door.

The Bentwood Rocker

Bentwood Before

I acquired this Bentwood Rocker at a resale shop in July, 2011. Something about the chair had called out to me, so I asked the owner if she'd sell it. She told me she was using the chair as a "prop," but would sell it to me. With her help, I put the rocker in the back of my van.

Once I got it home, I carefully put the rocking chair on my deck and examined it. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it needed some minor repairs, but otherwise, was in great shape. The left armrest was not attached because of a missing screw and the bottom front rail was also not attached. The lower part of the chair on the left side was damaged and needed to be filled, therefore the chair couldn't be stained, but had to be painted instead.

The first order of this long restoration process, would be to make the

Bentwood After

necessary repairs. I removed the old screws and replaced them, which made the chair very strong. I removed both arms so that the stripping process would be easier, then filled in the cracked bottom of the chair's arm. Once it was sanded, the crack disappeared. A few other places needed filling, then I began to sand the entire chair until it was smooth enough to paint. When the repairs were made, I began the painstakingly, tedious process of stripping the old paint by hand. And I did it all with torn ligaments in my right wrist that had occurred earlier that year in February. The pain in my wrist was so bad at times that I had to stop sanding much earlier in the evening than I wanted to.

I had purchased the chair in July, and after three months of daily stripping and sanding, in September, the chair was finally ready to be painted. I carefully masked off the wood so that I could paint the caning a golden wheat color to mimic the original color. The caning was in great shape and took the paint well. Once the caning was painted, I masked it off with newspaper to protect it from the dark brown paint we'd use on the rest of the chair. My husband, Jim, painted the chair's body because he had much more experience with spray painting than I did. He used his spray painter and air compressor with a custom-mixed dark brown paint that we'd chosen just for this chair.

After the chair was completely painted, I removed the masking and newspaper to reveal the caning underneath. After three months of daily hard work, the once neglected, old Bentwood rocking chair was again restored to its original beauty.