Hello once again. It has been a while since the Eggers were active on the blog. We had a very busy summer and school has started once again. Our latest project is restoring some wonderful oak furniture passed on to us by our late grandmother who had reportedly received it from her aunt. If my math is correct that means these pieces have been in the family for 5 generations and our kids would be the 6th (assuming we pass it to them). The pieces (a complete bedroom set) include a dresser, a smaller dresser / nightstand and a bed-frame with headboard and foot board. I spent the 4 day Labor Day weekend driving from Pennsylvania to Minnesota to pick up a U-haul trailer and load these forgotten treasures and then drive back. All of it was in fair to poor shape upon receipt....but with some elbow grease and determination it is slowly being restored to look nearly new. So far we have completed the large dresser. The process was as follows:
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| This is the start. Notice the scuffs |
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| and the peeling varnish |
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1. Remove all of the old hardware.
2. Remove decorative beading to refinish separately.
3. Strip off all of the old varnish with chemical stripper.
4. Sanding -lots of sanding - to remove all of the scuffs and old stain
5. More sanding.
6. Still more sanding.
7. Did I mention that we had to sand.
8. Re-staining with a light cherry.
9. Two coats of shellac varnish.
10. Replace the hardware with new.
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| All sanded and ready to stain |
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| peeling varnish and water marks |
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| Center drawer stained...notice the contrast |
This piece is going in Marie's room at least initially. She seems very pleased so far.
I think the results are nice. As you can see from the pictures it looks nearly brand new and is well worth the effort. A family heirloom that will hopefully last for 6 more generations.
The next piece will be the smaller dresser / nightstand followed by the bed so stay tuned and keep reading. Also on the agenda are 4 wooden chairs to refinish also acquired from my late grandmother.
We often find it simply amazing at the things people throw away. Much of the furniture in our house has been rummaged from a garage sale or simply found along the side of the street awaiting the garbage man. This piece is the newest acquisition. We initially passed this beautiful piece along a busy road after visiting a friend in a nearby neighborhood. We drove right on by it after one adult insisting to stop and look while the other insisted that we need to get home so the kids can get ready for bed. The other seemingly more responsible adult won the coin toss and we continued on home. Of course the first adult wound up driving back to take a look while the kids got ready for bed only to find an amazing 6 drawer chest with intricate hand painted oriental design on the veneer front. The entire piece was solid veneered lumber – no MDF. The only problem was that the first adult was now alone with a 100 pound piece of bulky furniture and his 2005 jeep liberty with the back seats already flattened out to make room. How does one get this item into the vehicle by himself without scratching and ruining it? The solution is quite simple; I had a piece of paper with Abraham Lincoln’s picture on it. A passerby was more than happy to exchange 5 minutes of muscle power for this portrait of our 16th POTUS. This young man was quite silent and I believe English deficient, but through the art of communication (facilitated by Mr. Lincoln) the dresser was loaded without a problem. It now sits in our bedroom and has replaced our previous one that has been demoted to board game organizer in the game room.
