Because I was moving into the big house, I sold the chairs from the little farmhouse. The table was an antique card table that folds up like a butterfly, and it is downstairs in the big house for now. It was never really large enough anyhow. I bought this table here last year, in pretty bad shape, mostly because it is veneer and has not been cared for. The veneer has lifted. One of the legs was broken right off at some time. It makes me wonder how that could happen, because it is solid wood under the quarter sawn oak veneer. It must have fallen off a truck or something equally trajic. The chairs came with me from White Rock, orignially with another table, long since sold. I always loved the shape of the chairs, but they too, had seen better days. Somewhere in their lives, they were painted green , but previous to that, white. They had been stripped quite well when I bought them, however; they put webbing on the seats for some reason. That is not how to upholster these chairs. There would have been a plywood cutout that had leather tucked around the bottom of the plywood, which then would have been nailed to the chairs. During their lifetime, they had been hobnailed, likely with leather and also tacked with somethiing else. Now they are criss cross webbed with a zillion staples in the wood. That will take some time to remove.
At first, I planned to paint the table for sure, because it was so rough, but I think I will try to restain it. The bottom would have to be stripped before accepting stain, though, because it appears after its mishap and broken leg, someone also varnished just the bottom. So I will stain and varnish what will accept the stain and assess the appearance. If it is really terrible, I will paint it, but t seems such a shame. The chairs will be fine stained and varnished. I have a ton of Bioshield wood finishes to choose from and will use a highly durable one, such as the floor finish. This may be the last life for these pieces, though if I take care of them, perhaps they will last another 100 years. I suspect the chairs are from the 1930s, possibly the 40's, but the table is newer made to look old. Now, with all its injuries and repairs, it does look old again.
The set of 5 chairs, one Captain's chair with arms and the table with two leaves will be my new kitchen set and it will fit beautifully in my little farmhouse. Just a few more days of work, one to remove the staples, and two to stain, then three to varnish or clear coat with the organic Bioshield product and I will have a new kitchen table and chairs, and one that I love to boot. It is going to be so pretty.
At first, I planned to paint the table for sure, because it was so rough, but I think I will try to restain it. The bottom would have to be stripped before accepting stain, though, because it appears after its mishap and broken leg, someone also varnished just the bottom. So I will stain and varnish what will accept the stain and assess the appearance. If it is really terrible, I will paint it, but t seems such a shame. The chairs will be fine stained and varnished. I have a ton of Bioshield wood finishes to choose from and will use a highly durable one, such as the floor finish. This may be the last life for these pieces, though if I take care of them, perhaps they will last another 100 years. I suspect the chairs are from the 1930s, possibly the 40's, but the table is newer made to look old. Now, with all its injuries and repairs, it does look old again.
The set of 5 chairs, one Captain's chair with arms and the table with two leaves will be my new kitchen set and it will fit beautifully in my little farmhouse. Just a few more days of work, one to remove the staples, and two to stain, then three to varnish or clear coat with the organic Bioshield product and I will have a new kitchen table and chairs, and one that I love to boot. It is going to be so pretty.
The veneer was off in quite a few places along the edges and it was in rough shape.
But the table is solid wood, and the leaves are solid oak, which make me wonder if they even came from this table at all, though they do fit. You can see the mark where the bottom right leg was broken and glued back on.
The chairs will take some time to strip the webbing off. They have been sanded down and some one else stripped them prior to that. They should turn out magnificently.
The mark on the right is the worst where the veneer had chipped off the side and the top. This has been well sanded now and will simply have to be part of "the well worn and weathered' look. I think.
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