What have you done with old Furniture? Here are some of the many pieces I have painted/refinished. Most of our furnishings are repurposed and/or restored. Again Lets see your creations. Made this bar from an old piece that once had columns on it. This last piece from 1780's was falling apart when I bought it. One of my favorites.
Here are a few pieces I have restored. The Church pew is Cypress and was shortened. The other pieces came from my parents had been stored for many years when I restored them.
Queen Ann couch and chair that has been in our Family forever. As a kid I sat on that furniture and watch shows like Hopalong Cassidy and Mickey Mouse Club. I have owned and restored them the past 45 years. Small chair also restored. This one was from the May Furniture Company which was owned from the 30's to the 60's by my Great Aunt and Uncle. The rolltop desk belonged to my Grandfather.
Here's a Hoosier cabinet that was our winter project. My wife did the stained glass, while I stripped it (by hand, don't ask), made two doors, and added punched tin pieces to. This is usually were I do my art work (taking classes at the local college). The bottom photo is what it looked like when I started. I was going to just repaint it, but then I realized that it was Oak!!
Thanks Steve, the hardest part is finding the thin tin. I bought some 18 gauge locally, but it was hard to work with because of the thickness. While in Home Depot I discovered large sheets of Galvanized that were much easier to deal with and reasonably priced. Pick a pattern/create your own as I did (with a Big C for Carpenter), add a border, tape to the piece (I placed a piece of thin foam board underneath) and punch away. I used a #6 finishing nail and a small ball peen hammer. There are some tutorials on the web and special tools, but I try to make do with what I have!
I found a huge sheet of super thin tin at the local scrap& recycle yard. ( maybe 4' x 8'+). My last hard task on my wacko pink/red kitchen will be using the tin in each of the upper cabinet doors. Take out the raised wood panel, then use the tin with designs of 4 female faces of different eras on 4 short doors, and the 4 tall doors will be standing women of same various decades. Then painting the tin with copper spraypaint, then "age it", by going over that with brown wood stain? I ran into a young cashier at a store who was doing nice sketches of things on slow days, and she is now doing the sketches of what I want. This is a pretty cool thing for me......to be able to "hire an artist".. The sheet I found might be a problem because it has a faint pebble design pressed in? ...but is very, very thin. I am trying to replicate a WW1 piece of trench art that was done on a large brass shell casing. That soldier used ads from a magazine of standing women, then held them over the shell to do like a tracing? I have far too many ideas and not enough time/money... lol .
I got this Arts and Crafts/Mission style rocking chair about 20 years ago. The rockers/runners were all rotten as if it had sat in water at one point in it's life. It had a nasty, dark, dirty finish that showed none of the wood underneath. I made sure it wasn't a Gustav Stickley piece and stripped it. It's just an old, no name piece of furniture. Not exactly sure of it's age. Then it sat until a couple of months ago, when I finally decided to tackle the restoration. I hate sanding antique furniture, but that was the only way I was going to get the new finish to look good. I also learned how to upholster this chair from a Youtube videos. Here's how it looked a few months ago, sitting on the reproduction rockers I had to purchase. Here's the final product. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it.
Great thread with a lot of nice work! All this stuff stays local since shipping costs exceed the valve of many items. I saved this sideboard from a trip to the town dump. Some day I'll put it to use in the garage. Bob
Mark: Very Nice work restoring the furniture. My problem is I also like old things better then new things and that includes cars and homes. Jim
Our home is furnished in what I like to call Early American hand me downs. I have refinished or rebuilt most of it. Brenda & I have lived in the same home for 46 years and people tend to collect more & more until there is no more room, other people move and liquidate and there we are hauling more stuff home. I'll take a few photos of some of our treasures when I get home. HRP
When I was in the home remodeling business the contents of an attic said a lot about the home owner. If it only housed suit cases and Christmas decorations they weren't staying there for long. Bob
Bought this years ago at a yard sale. The folks said "Grandpa built this from scrap long ago and it had an inlaid top, we kept the top for a wall hanger and don't want the rest", I asked how much, "Two bucks", I'll take it. I was going to put a solid top on it but a while later it was stored in the garage, I laid a piece of glass on it and hmmm, that might work. I store my little things in it that I think are cool but what else would you do with them...? When we started having grandkids around I wanted to find a way to lock the drawers. Each drawer has a pin at the back that drops in to lock the drawer, I use a neodymium magnet to retract the pin into a pocket hidden in the crossbars with an acrylic sleeve to keep it in place. The pin retracts with a satisfying click when you hover the magnet over it and gravity lets the pin fall back in to place when you pull it away.
here's one I rescued from a dirt floor 3 walled shed on a pig farm. solid oak, but it had been wet and warped a bunch of the panels. 4 coats of paint and about 20 nails here and there to keep it together. had to build all new drawers and only used the fronts. took it completely apart and put it all back together after sanding. I like how old furniture was all built with joinery and few if any mechanical fasteners. this one only had 4 screws holding the top on. I've done a few others over the years but don't have photos. if I was not a car guy I would be a wood guy.
Something I pulled out of a ditch , I glued it back together, added the boards for shelves and then some artwork
I wish I had skills and place to repair my old firniture. I had to hire a disposal service when I was moving the last time.
Some great pieces here! I love how you guys make the old furniture look awesome and stylish again. I wish i would such a great woodworking skills to be able to work on such a project myself. Instead i am addicted to parks furniture, ordering new and new pieces from them couple of times a year.
Hello, My wife and I have gone through some interesting furniture phases. Starting off with our early 1960 styles and oak furniture. Salvaged, refinished hatch board covers from big freighter ships to home made giant pillows for our couches. It was less expensive to make our own rather than buy something. LP records, stereo components, record player and giant 15 inch speakers with metal horn tweeters sounded quite nice in the small area. Relaxing on giant homemade pillows was so comfortable, that after surfing, it was a couple hour napping area for sure… What else did we need to meet our relaxed lifestyle atmosphere? When we saved up enough money to start a “normal” furniture purchase or two, we bought an old antique oak table and two chairs. The apartment was so small that we did not have space to store “stuff” so, there was no reason to clog up our dinky apartment with cabinets or bookcases. When we finally bought a house, there was enough space to continue our collection of old oak antique furniture to add to our collection. One being a bookcase, a sideboard, a kitchen flour sifter oak glass cabinet, and an antique refrigerator. Jnaki Now, all oak furniture items are gone and replaced by different styles, as our lifestyle moved to other smaller older homes in our coastal living areas. One thing that we still remember is the Oak oils for upkeep and refinishing that still lingers in the air back then. When we open a container of the same oil, these days, everything comes right back in those original “starting out” actions and memories… YRMV
The smell in the air, as the fine sandpaper gets a move on the surfaces, brings on the never ending memory of old oak. Then, as the project gets its new path, the old Watco Oil comes in to play as a sealant and preservative to keep it in its natural state. The style of our line of old oak furniture was left in its natural state. It was not the first variety of roll top desks as that period of history was not in our line of style. As for portability, luckily, the old roll top came apart and the top was separate from the two bottom drawer bases. It fit in the back of the El Camino with simplicity and ease. Hello, One of our last purchases and easiest item to sell, quickly, when we moved to our last house was an antique roll top desk. It had enough room to put on a Royal Typewriter in its case on the open roll top desk area. Many of the typed stories were done on that portable typewriter and lots of erasures, for sure. But, when it was done, the roll top gently came down and the typewriter was hidden for another day. When my wife wanted to do some letter writing, she had several places in the house she could choose. But, since this is a desk of sorts, an old one at that, for us, a fairly new item, we needed to get it sanded down for our version of finishes. Natural state of oak with a smooth rubbed oil finish. So, after a time in the garage, the finished project was moved into the main living room and then a new location was the standard area for finished work. Now, we had a large enough desk space to write letters and thank you notes. Stamps and small envelopes were the additional items that fit into their cubby holes and small drawers in the roll top area. These days, the desk is gone, but my wife had taught our son to write a thank you note after receiving a gift or two and mail the note asap. Then, many years after the desk was gone, our granddaughter had her own drop down desk to use for art and writing. In her early writing years, she also learned the thank you, hand written letters for any and all gifts, large or small. A disappearing act, these days from most, but we still get handwritten letters from both of them at times. Jnaki So, old writing habits die hard and that is a good thing. But, these days, a nice laptop would fit nicely inside of the old oak roll top desk and covered up, out of sight during its nap times during the day... Note: Although, these days, the roll top desk is gone, no longer fitting in our office space and style. But, also the old Royal Typewriter is still gathering dust in the garage attic, somewhere. One day, it may be used as a bookcase display item if we decide to show case the old friend from the way back time machine. But, that can of old Watco Oil still lingers with its distinct aroma and tons of memories... YRMV
What I really like about this picture is the building! It's super cool, I'd like to see more of it. Those curved rafters , and the roof shape, are fantastic.
The Jalopy Journal
