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.