It's time for another makeover! Each month, our "Furniture Refresh" group takes a piece of furniture and refreshes it into a new life. You never know what we come up with!
I was excited to redo this antique Windsor style chair I found at a flea market in the Hudson Valley. It's one of my favorite places to go for great farmhouse things. I scored with the chair, an antique cast iron bell, and an old milk box.
There were several chairs available but this cutie caught my eye.
Those spindles are so slim, crooked, and just plain sweet. Even though the chair was banged up quite a bit, I could envision it refinished to remain old looking.
Normally any beat up piece with cracks could be filled in, sanded, then painted. But this chair deserved to show its years by leaving all of the scars exposed.
A fan back American Windsor like this dates into the 1700's. If it survived this long, why not show it?
So I sanded it. A lot. But not too crazy in the creases and cracks. Allowing the old paint to accentuate all of them. Including a lot of old wormholes.
After becoming impatient with sanding, I cleaned the dust off, rubbed in coconut oil to condition the wood, then used a dark antique wax to seal the whole chair. It brought back the true identity.
A few of the spindles were previously broken and repaired. And done well, as they were holding up. (Probably why the chair was painted.) The dark wax shows where the breaks were. Wormholes are all over the hand carved seat and they actually look amazing.
Check out these handmade spindles. A bit crooked, but so fascinating!
In fact the whole backrest is bit off. Like, it became twisted.
The cracks are really obvious with the paint removed.
Surprisingly, the chair is sturdy despite its age.
I'm a sucker for antiques like this and believe they should be refinished if they can. Although it isn't valuable because of its condition, it sure is handsome; war wounds and all.
With all of its scars and age lines, it's very functional.
And it displays plenty of character.
Sitting there all twisted and crooked, it fits into our home just fine.
It will sit in our dining room as an accent piece. Used when necessary. After all, being a couple hundred years old, it should rest. After several more polishings, it should continue to shine in its own glory.
Well, that's my makeover of the month. Let's see what the other group members did with their crazy amazing talent!!
Here are the before photos:
Click on the blogs to see the finished outcome:
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