Four screws, take 'em out and the whole chair brakes down into it's flat components! Makes it easy to ship and easy to clean and refinish. And that...the cleaning and refinishing part, not the shipping part...is exactly what I got done today.
This is as far as I got Sunday. Just a quick cleanup of the dust and cobwebs and a temporary
application of cushion. Just enough to kinda show it off. From a distance it looks great but
there were some finish issues that I needed to address. So today I got some of that Howards
Restore-A-Finish in Walnut that everybody is raving about.
Here are a couple of before and after pics. Sorry the after pics are indoors and with a flash.
That totally changes the color but at least you can see the obvious and vast improvement. Gone
are those badly scratched and finishless areas. I had to really go to town with the Goof Off to
get the old duct tape residue off the wood at the back of the seat.
I didn't really take my time with this as it'll be hidden by a cushion sooner or later...and I don't
really have a lot of patience. Still, a huge improvement! Then I cleaned everything with general
purpose cleaner. After that I used some dry steel wool (0000) on everything which really cleans
the finish up quite nicely itself. Then I used a new piece of steel wool and applied the Howards
Restore-A-Finish.
I was surprised how different this product is than my stand by of Minwax Antique Finish
Restorer. The Minwax dissolves the old finish where as the Howards does not. The Howards
seems to perhaps further clean the existing finish while adding color to areas that need it. It
does not leave a finish behind or disturb the original finish. It just freshens up the old and fills
in color where needed. I like it. I have a number of other items that I will be trying it out on
in the future, including a full Broyhill Sculptra bedroom set that I've yet to clean up!
Now...cushions. Hmmm....
Looks great...RAF is some great stuff and can work miracles on some pieces without a whole lot of time and effort!!
ReplyDeleteHi A Mod. I'm diggin' it. It's going in the burgeoning arsenal!
DeleteHave you ever tried Tinker's Upholstery? We had new cushions made there for an entire living room set and they look awesome. I know you like to do these things yourself, but when starting completely from scratch, it doesn't hurt to look into it.
ReplyDeleteHi Anony. I'm thinking I might try out some nice patio chair cushions first. Ya never know...it might work! Maybe slip covered?
DeleteGreat work, looks like you're a convert too!
ReplyDeleteHi Uncle A. Count me converted! I'm thinking that it might also work great in conjunction with the ol' Minwax stand by.
Deleteawesome job.. looks great and with all the scratches gone!
ReplyDeleteHi Sudha. I was pretty surprised how well it took care of those problem areas on the front legs just under the armrests. Magic!
DeleteJust got the exacts some chair at the Antique show in NYC...The guy was cleaning out rental properties and kept it instead of throwing it away. I got it for $75. Mine needs the cleaning and entire new cushions...Any thought on new cushions? Thanks! Majick
ReplyDeleteI dug and I mean dug a pair of these out of a gutted out school bus full of mid century gold (mostly mass produced for offices) sitting in a construction salvage yard for $10ea. The arms on mine are more straight with square ends but other than that they are the same Yugoslavian chair with brown vinyl(puke) cushions. Mine were really roached from weather and spots on one them, the wood has turned grey but otherwise they are solid.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a chair like this, which had been my grandparent's chair. Unfortunately, I had to sell it several years ago while going through a difficult financial time, but I always loved the easy way that it came apart and how solid it was when it went back together! The cushions were the originals (orange/brown mixture), but I had to pull out the original padding which had hardened over the years. Still hope that I'll be able to find another one some day.
ReplyDelete