Trash to Treasure

[Sharles]

My wife and I were dirt poor for many years when we were first married. My MIL gave me a 15 minute lesson on refinishing furniture, and from there I just kind of ran with it. Each of these treasures are my 'babies.' Most of them were junk that no one else wanted. First step is to strip all the old finish and varnish off. Then I fix whatever is structurally wrong with the piece. I love old furniture with all the beautiful hardwoods and grains. Usually, I just have to re-glue some of the joints, but sometimes I had to do more: like make missing pieces or drill out and plug something so I can re-install a caster, or make a new shelf. None of this is good enough to resell: I just don't have the correct tools to so or even a garage. So I do the dirty stuff outside in my gravel driveway, and then clear enough space in my cluttered, little basement to stain and then apply the poly urethane high gloss finish.

Here are a few of my pieces.
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This was just an old, blackened chair. One of 8 (3 different styles) that I got from my wife's grandfather's estate after all his children took all the 'good' stuff. I think my MIL was pretty jealous after she saw what she had passed by...but she wouldn't have wanted to do the work to make it look like this. I love the grain in this chair. Just old oak, but so pretty.

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This is another piece from my wife's grandfather's estates. It's one of the 3 prettiest pieces I have ever done. The right door was off it's hinge. It was all black and missing a shelf. But when I got done, it was truly a show stopper. The front is bowed and the graining is truly phenomenal, and then they added the carvings on top of the 2 doors and the bottom shelf.

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Hmmm...apparently they cut off the bottom of the photo that showed the table, and not just all the junk up on top of it....I also got this walnut table from my wife's grandfather. It was in pieces. When I put it back together and fixed a few minor things, I can now extend it about 12' if I need.

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My wife and I home schooled our son all 13 years. When he graduated, I bought this piece of junk for $20 as her graduation gift. The wood 'skirting' around the bottom had bowed apart from the top and after I had stripped it, it began to seep oils because they hadn't properly dried it. So it sat in front of our fireplace all winter as I tried to dry it out. This is one of my 3 favorite pieces.

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These are pictures of a handmade family heirloom piece that my wife's great, great (I think) uncle made. The main part is walnut and the fronts of each drawer is made out of curly/bird's eye maple we think. I included a shot of the inside of the drawer, as I always finish these pieces inside and out to help preserve them but also because it's incredible how pretty the 'junk' wood they used for the guts of the furniture they made in the past.

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These are just two old 'displays' used in some old store. Can you imagine someone making a 'throw away' display for a store nowadays using hardwoods, crackled glass, and ornate overlays? I re-did these for my wife to use as organizers in her craftroom.

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These are some of the other pieces I've done. None of the sawdust junk they make nowadays. Every time I see one of these at home, I'm just awed by the beauty and craftsmanship they used in the past. The only thing I'm not awed by was they NEVER finished the insides of dressers that couldn't be seen. I guess that's a luxury I can afford to do to preserve it better than it started out as.

[TylerBeer]

The design that went into items, especially post-modern, was amazing.  I have an aunt with a whole house of teak that someday I hope I'll get something from