Sunday, November 25, 2007

Four Hours Later. . .


BEFORE

Yesterday, I spent four hours cleaning my brand new bench. Confused? Well, while it's brand new to me it is hardly brand new. It was built in 1931 and has probably been in storage for at least thirty years, maybe more. So, that was 30 years worth of dust, dirt, and mold that had to come off. By the time I was done, it was nice and clean and shiny, and I was SO dirty.


AFTER

These after shots have it still in my garage as I let it dry and air out from the Murphy's Oil scrubbing. You can see there are a bunch of scratches on the front and some stains on the top that wouldn't come off. In the back, the floor boards are a little worn and the finish is coming off of the drawers. BUT! It's clean!!

I definitely think it needs to be refinished, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to tackle that just yet. There's not that much room in the garage for me to do it at the moment and now that I finally have it, I want to use it! But, it would look gorgeous once it's done. . . My other thought is that if I bring it inside and get it all set up, what are the chances that I'll take it back out to refinish it? Oh, and the minor other detail is that I'm never refinished a piece of furniture before. I downloaded some instructions from Lowe's and they have it marked as an "Advanced" project. Hmmmm. . .

5 comments:

Kirsten said...

I like that patina of age. I wonder if there is some way to keep it, yet alter it just enough to give it that "finished" look.

Athena's Armoury said...

Not a bad idea. =D Plus, it would save me the HUGE amount of work to refinish it.

pk fairaday said...

Lots of work, but it will be lovely- could you try furniture feeder(restorer) and scratch cover first? We don't want to bite off too much at first!

TrueMirage said...

I'm so jealous! what a gorgeous bench. I love furniture that looks like it has a history.

Athena's Armoury said...

pk_fairaday, I just had to look up the furniture feeder! I was talking with a guy at work who's really into antiques and refinishing furniture and he suggested the same thing. Cool. Thanks for the tip!