A Five-Dollar Antique Rocker is Beautified

Rocker After

Rocker Before

We acquired this very weathered, antique rocking chair from an antique store in Birch Run a few years ago. This chair cost only $5.00. It took a while before Jim was able to refinish it, but once he did, wow! It looked terrific. What you see in the "before" photo is exactly what it had looked like when we brought it home. Who knew that beneath all that gray, weathered exterior lie a gorgeous mahogany chair?

Jim removed the old, damaged caning as it definitely couldn't be used, then took the chair apart so he could get to all the individual components of it. We were both in shock once he had sanded away who knows how many years of grime and weather? I guess good quality wood doesn't go bad. 

We don't know exactly how old the chair is, but given its condition and structure, I estimate it to be roughly a century old, possibly older. I can research it and modify this blog once I do. After he refinished it, it sat in the basement for a couple of years before I finally got around to installing the new caning. For this chair I decided to use a radio-weave cane instead of the traditional caning seen in other blog posts. I felt like I wanted to try something new and chose the radio-weave because it complemented the curves of the chair. It wasn't too difficult to work with either, which is great. I love when the photos really speak the language that only an antique that has been weathered can relay. A photo is indeed worth a thousand words. Wouldn't you agree?