Thursday, June 26, 2014

Finished in the nick of time...

About 5 minutes ago
I finally finished refinishing the cedar chest I got when we moved in here.




Sadly, I never took any "before" pictures.
I hate it when I forget to do that!
But you will have to trust me...
It was in pretty rough shape.
It was really dirty
Missing a leg
the finish was cracking and old
the copper pieces were black
_____
When we were looking at this place to rent it, 
the garage and house still had a few things that needed to be removed
This beauty was in the garage in a corner, covered with bugs and cobwebs.
I told the realtor that if the owner didn't want it
I would take it.

She told me a few days later that it belonged to the owner's mother
and they wanted to keep it.

No problem.

But later when the owners came to clean out their stuff
she asked me if I still wanted it.
She said that none of her siblings wanted it and she didn't have space for it.

I was pretty excited.
_____

I seem to be drawn to furniture that has a lot of character
which is to say
that upon closer inspection
this piece of furniture was probably made by grandpa.
It was not made by a skilled furniture maker.

Things are pieced together in interesting ways.
There are obvious signs of the thing being "handmade"
and all of the copper pieces have been hand cut from a sheet of copper.
Interesting.

But that is part of what I love about it.
It's quirky and different.


It sat in the same sad condition for probably a year.
Frank was not impressed with my project.

Once winter ended this year I realized I needed to get going on this project.
So I started.
But I'm pretty slow.

Then we decided to move...
I knew I had to put it in gear and finish!

As I was working
Frank would wonder aloud if this was a good time for another project.
He had a point.
But I could not move this thing unfinished!
I will have enough to do once I arrive...I don't need this hanging over my head.

I carefully removed all of the copper pieces
I sanded it down to the bare wood
(with much help from my awesome friend Annavon)
re-stained it
cleaned all the copper pieces
Ordered new decorative tacks
(3 times...kept getting it wrong...but that's another story)
found the missing leg!
And put it all back together.


I know I came in just under the wire
since we are moving in only a couple of weeks.


The lighting in my basement is uneven
so you'll just have to believe me when I say the coloring is even...
In these pictures one side looks lighter.


I hope I did justice to grandpa's handiwork.
It's going to look good in my new family room.


2 comments:

  1. It looks REALLY pretty! I love it. You should figure out how to send a picture to the previous owners with a "nanny nanny boo boo" attached to show how awesome it is now. :) Just kidding. that would be mean.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I did actually email a picture of it to my landlady...but I didn't mean it in a "nanny nanny boo boo" sort of way. I just thought they'd enjoy seeing it all fixed up. Hope they don't think I'm mean!

      Delete