From Ugly to Bare to Beautiful!

 This is one set of chairs I am very happy to see stripped.   A refurbishing job just wouldn't be enough to make these chairs look their best because the finish is old and worn.  But in addition, the stain is very dated.  Some stains have a timeless quality to them, well I should say most stains have a timeless quality to them, but we went through a period during the last century where furniture makers were doing 'fancy' things to the stains (think gold flecks, or black 'distressing')  which really gave the furniture an era-recognizable look.  This set of chairs is a good example.


 The good thing is, that old, dated finish is gone!  We just got done stripping it off  and now the beautiful, clean wood is visible again.  Now, I wonder what the owners will choose for the new stain and finish?



Another interesting little project going on at the shop today is this cute little Tilt-Top table.   Here you can see we have stripped it and prepped it for staining.   When we stripped it originally we discovered one of the legs was a replacement. It had been pore-filled with a white medium which, thankfully, is gone now. It turns out whomever replaced it used honduras mahogany, a light colored mahogany instead of an african mahogany like the rest of the table.

Today, the table received this stain in a Cognac color.  I find this stain to be such a nice medium brown with the slightest red tint, that it works well on a large number of projects.  The new leg looks much closer to the old legs, and even though it isn't a perfect match, the customer decided it was close enough for her to be happy with it.  This little table will be getting a Semi-Gloss finish later on this week.