Refinishing a rocking chair

A friend's daughter is expecting her first child.  Their nursery furniture is dark so she wanted this rocking chair refinished to a dark walnut.

Chair sanded and ready for staining

pre-stain conditioner done

first coat of dark walnut stain

Replacing the bottom Drawer with a shelf

Removed the plywood shelf that the previous owners had been using.

Cut a length of ash to size.  I still need to plane, joint and glue the boards together and then cut to size my plan is to match the curve of the front of the dresser on the shelf and then route the edge to match the current design of the bottom of the dresser.  I will then stain to match the rest of the dresser. 

Removing the veneer top

So I removed the veneer from the top to see if the top could just be finished sometimes the wood under the veneer can be quite good.  Unfortunately not in this case, it looks ok from a distance but up close you can see there are grooves in the wood some are too deep to sand out so will need to get a veneer for the top.  I am going to go out to a local specialty lumber store to see what I can find today.

Turning an old dresser into an TV stand

I have been looking for an old dresser to convert to a TV stand.  Found this one yesterday on kijiji for $35.  It needs a shelf  to replace the bottom drawer and replace the plywood shelf its previous owner had put together.  The veneer on the top needs to be repaired or replaced.  I suspect replace as it quite badly damaged. Also it has three small drawers one of which is intact the other two need to be repaired.

Gothic window repurposed into a mirror

This gothic window was picked from a dumpster the home owner was replacing their windows.
I stripped the paint and then left the wood natural I used beeswax to polish the frame instead of varnish. I picked up a mirror from Value village for $3 and had a local glass company cut it for me to fit the window for $25.   Total cost to me $28

Result

Refinishing Desk and Chair Gossip bench

This is the only before I have of my table and chair gossip bench  I got it for $6 at a farm auction along with all the other stuff in the picture :) it is the dark brown table and chair with the pink fabric seat.  The varnish was peeling as it had been sitting in a barn for years.

I stripped it sanded and stained and varnished the table top and shelf and the chair. I chose to paint the rest of the desk and the chair insert a pale lilac colour.  I reupholstered the seat in a darker purple leather that I picked up at a Reuse store for $5 for a remnant roll.  Still have to add another coat of varnish to the chair and table and then it is done.  I will post a final picture when it is done.

Finished cabinet

I think I will replace the clear glass with a frosted glass eventually as I am using this cabinet to store my towels. But I am happy with how it turned out.

Working on the Cabinet

I fixed the doors replaced the glass that was missing on the one door.  Made a new insert to replace the one missing from the right hand door. Made a new side for the drawer, painted the cabinet, sanded, stained and varnished the doors, top and drawer knobs in oak.

refinishing a cabinet

My friend found this cabinet at the end of a driveway for free the doors and drawer were broken.

My next project was to refinish this gossip bench that I picked up for $4 at a farm auction

I took it apart sanded stained, painted and then re-glued all the pieces. I created a cushion for the seating area and this was the result.

Completed Island

Finished and in place in the kitchen

final touches

Base painted and ready for assembly.

I have been bad and did not update my posts.  here are the pics for the completed Island I decided against the concrete counter top for a number of reasons but built my own counter top from Ash boards that I laminated together.  I am happy with the results.  I am going to use the concrete counter for an outdoors project haven't decided what yet, but I will post when it is done.

 Fitting the countertop and checking for level to make sure I get the legs to the right height.

 Building the legs to support the countertop.

 Fitting everything to make sure that the height is good for the counter height stools.

Staining the counter top.