Thread: Advice needed for some new projects

Originally Posted by Horsecroft88

Really Lawrey , hmn well, lets see what transpires, I am hoping the dresser top will fit nicely onto the base and not be too big in the dining room at home. Out at the country property, in the kitchen space would not be an issue but the dining room at home is somewhat small, and I do already have that other rustic baltic pine dresser. Might need to do in the short term some furniture re-arrangement. Thanks though for the offer to take it off my hands !!


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.....All in the spirit of goodwill & helpfulness!!

Originally Posted by Lawry01

.....All in the spirit of goodwill & helpfulness!!

Thanks mate

Its been a while since I posted anything re my various projects, quite a lot has occurred in my life since February.

This small hall table is made from kauri, huon and blackwood, which I restored many years ago. I bought it from the local auctions, and was in about 10 pieces plus, missing one of the side rails and the drawer. It was covered in paint, (as ever) but I only paid $30 so who is complaining.

In restoring it, I needed to insert a side rail, repair a top section of one of the legs which had split off and as well make a new drawer from scratch. A first for me, though it is not dovetailed, as I have neither the experience or equipment needed to do this kind of thing. I was still happy with what I achieved.

I actually gave it to my brother as a christmas/birthday present, but somehow he never collected it from my parent's home. Mum recently passed away, and so in cleaning out one of the rooms at their home, I liberated the table and brought it home to repolish the top which over the years had become dull and a little scratched. I also had to re-fix one of the drawer runners.

It does slope slightly forward, as the front legs are worn away at the base, and yes I probably could fix this, but at this stage I havn't bothered to do so. I like its rustic appearance and the slope is not too bad.

I only wonder how long it might take for my brother to come and collect 'his table' from me.

Dave, sorry to hear of your mother's passing. Its tough with oldies...going through some fun & games with mine at the moment! In the midst of other things proving challenging at the moment, this is hard work!! So like you have been somewhat silent on the furniture project front.

I do like the old table you have liberated, and hopefully your brother delays pick up so you can enjoy it a little. I'm needing to get into another project or two, if for no other reason than to clear the mind and 'sniff the metho & wax' to escape for a while!! A good friend told me on Friday that I was a much easier fellow to be around when I have a good project on the go!!!

Onwards & upwards!! Lawry

Hi Lawry, many thanks mate, it sure was a tough time, mum had a stroke and over the week we (my family) watched her slowly slip away. The bedside vigil 24 hours/day took its toll, but we all pulled through, and afterall giving our dad all the support he needs has been good for all of us. I am sorry to hear of the times you too are going though. It is never easy, and letting go is hard, but life must go on.

Yup like you, my woody projects certainly took a back seat. I have also been away quite a bit over the period as my other half had to move to Sydney for work for at least the next year. So plenty of up and back.

It felt good sorting out the table, and I know what you mean as I actually really like this table, but a deal is a deal so it is my brothers not mine. But, it is up to him to come and collect it. heh heh.

Hope you too can find some good projects to get into, for me, it takes my mind off other stuff and I find it really helpful. A bit like the book I have been slowly writing for a number of years, escapism, challenging and ultimately satisfying. But that is another story !!

I agree onwards and upwards. Cheers and all the best Dave

Hi Dave

Very sorry to read about the passing of your Mum, unfortunately not much else you can say but a sincere sorry.

Good to see you back at it and the escapism comment struck a chord with me too. I assume you wont be bugging your brother to come and pick up his table - however from what you have shown me I think he has enough to keep himself busy!

Cheers

Cam

Thanks Chief, yes I am afraid you are quite correct, what else can one really say. Such times are always sad and one's parents are always special.

Heh heh, oh it just has to be escapism, for me the chance to work on such projects is such a complete contrast to my profession, (Manager with the EPA here is Tas, so that means office bound and shackled to the computer or in meetings, and the like). Restoration of furniture, classic cars, and old houses are a passion of mine. Hence putting in enthusiasm, hard work, time and some $$$ is fine by me.

Not only have I finally got back into the swing of things with furniture once more, ditto last Sunday was the first time in about 2 months that I managed to get out to the country property. I am still working on the hallway out there, plaster work is nearly finished, and then it is time to finish off restoration of all the wood work in the hall (floor, joinery, staircase etc). I am really looking forward to seeing this part of the restoration completed as it will be a huge step forward on this project.

Oh yes said brother has plenty on his plate, and it is true, I won't be bugging him to come and collect the table. I can admire my work at leisure for the time being.

Ok, first two pics show the front section (earliest section dating back to 1826) with original wide (300mm) butt jointed baltic boards, (dado - tas oak and incorrect in place and hiding original blackwood skirtings). The Dado is now gone, and plasterwork repaired, floors have had initial light sanding and borer treated hence patchy appearance, and we installed a manhole in the ceiling (using baltic to trim this up). I will need to re-sand and re-colour (shellac) before tung oil coating the floor. All the joinery was hand striped (architraves including the archway cedar and/or baltic and cedar 6 panel doors). The baltic panel in the what should be an internal fanlight, will need to be removed and a new fanlight with fine mullions re-instated. I need to find a suitable joiner for that job.

I will also upload some pics of the staircase which is a combination of baltic and NZ Kauri. I had to have the bottom stairs section re-built as it was in poor condition, so have used a mix of Huon pine, blackwood and baltic treads/risers. Once it is all completely stripped and polished it should look superb. The rear section of the hallway is lined in baltic lining boards and strangely enough a blackwood section (which I have stripped). My current thinking is to completely strip one wall back to show what the timberwork looks like but re-paint the rest of the walls, as stripping it back would be (a) too much work, (b) would make the hall possibly too dark in this section and/or (c) resemble a sauna. Not sure I really wish to go there. The floors are original butt jointed wide Tas Oak boards.
Anyway I will head out again on Thursday and over the weekend to get more done.

The staircase before work commenced on it.

Work commenced on the lower tread/risers repairs and we built a cupboard under the stairs by extending the area a little. These are all oldish photos, taken early on this year. I will update them and post some more, especially once there is more progress to show how it is all coming together. The one thing I can say is that the hall will not be be painted white on the walls. Current thinking is towards some sort of nice light creamy yellow to offset all the wood work, antique furniture and persian rugs we have.

I have to admit, I am somewhat staggered by the number of views that my now somewhat lengthy thread has garnered, and I can re-assure all who might venture onto this one, that it is not just me, posting stuff here, to bolster this number !!.

I have also at times thought that perhaps I should finish this one off, as much of what I have more recently posted is not so much about needing help/advice but rather simply taking the opportunity to show what I am working on, my various projects.

Anyway, given that I thought I would post a much better pic of the staircase I took yesterday when out at the property as it better shows what I need to restore. My plan is to try not to over-restore the staircase, as I don't wish to loose its patina, but rather simply bring it back to life, showing the grain and colours of the various timbers in it.

The other photo I will attach is of a little cottage chair (i think it might be Elm ??? any other suggestions), that I bought many years ago. Someone had made a start on sorting it out, but never finished it. Again, I don't wish to over-restore, but will clean up the green paint on the one leg and try and even out the differences between the old dark (gone off shellac) and newly shellaced surfaces. I don't wish it to look too fresh and light in colour, so may have to try playing around with some stains, but equally I don't want it looking too false in colour. Thankfully it seems pretty strong, that is no loose joints, so one less problem to sort out.

Ok, given that people still seem to be somehow interested in what I am up to with my all too many varied projects, I am going to assume that perhaps I am doing something ok here. So see below for a couple of pics of yet another project I just finished re-tidying up. Some years back I managed to pick up a small proportion cupboard/dresser base. Its mostly baltic, but has blackwood legs and with cedar panel faces on the doors. Internally it has one shelf.

When I bought it, it had been roughly finished and while perfectly ok, I wasn't completely happy with it. Fast forward a few years and I tried to sell it to my builder, as I basically felt I probably had too many antiques and probably could justify letting it go. I am only talking of a few hundred $$ afterall. Anyway the long and short of it was he too felt he couldn't really justify buying it at the time, even though he liked it. So to bring this little story up to date, I ended up bringing it back home from the country place and kept it in my lounge room. Over time, with the cats jumping up and over it scratched the finish in quite a number of places.

The only solution therefore being to key it back and re-polish. I actually ended up pretty much sanding it lightly back and re-shellac finishing it. As ever the final stage being to steel wool and bees wax polish the piece. Once again proving to myself just how forgiving a shellac finish is, as it has come up a real treat. The tidy up on this one being literally undertaken over two nights after dinner.

I now have it in the "good room" with the other good antiques and yes out of the way of the cats claws. Hope people enjoy the pics of this little piece.

Just a quick update on the chair project. I have over the past few days managed to get a little more work completed on this. Cleaning up the green painted leg, though not quite completed as ran out of paint stripper, grrr. But I have cut back and re-shellaced the seat base, top back rail, as well as the spindles and the other front leg and support rail. Need to complete the legs.

What I am trying to do though is not to loose all the dark colour of the old shellac as that is a part of the history of the chair, I just want it to look cleaned up and with a depth of shine/colour to better show the grain of the timbers in it. So in sanding back, I am not being too bothered by trying to clean back all the old shellac from the turned grooves in the spindles or legs, but I do need to clean sufficient back so as not to have problems of reaction occuring between the old and new shellac finish.

All going well I should have this chair finished off by next week, the final stage being the cutting back with steel wool and wax on wax off. I will post a pic of the completed chair.

Well, I beat my estimate, it being Sunday and the chair is already finished and has been sat on. It looks and feels really good. The one clear thing which I kind of always knew but is now more apparent is that the Green painted right hand leg was actually a replacement, and hence doesn't quite match the other 3 legs. It is fine for me, but I do notice it. I will post some pics of the completed project in the next day or so. Onwards and upwards to the next project..........