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The Habitat Luncheon Rocking Chair Before

I have been hard at work on my pieces for the Habitat for Humanity luncheon and I thought I would share another before with you.  Today I have for you a rocking chair.

Ridiculous Redhead Habitat Chair Before

This was the second piece I had picked out.   I admit it doesn’t look like much here.  The wood has got a yucky red stain which is chipped and worn.  The upholstery is a salmon like color.  But it has nice clean lines (less hand sanding).  It is made of thick chunks of wood which I love.  This is no french provincial scrolly piece. This is a solid chair.  And it’s very comfortable.

This is one of the arms and you can see the wear and tear it has endured.   I plan on trying to sand that finish this afternoon and hopefully I can just sand instead of having to strip.  I am under a deadline with these pieces so I am trying to avoid any unnecessary steps.

Ridiculous Redhead Habitat Chair Arm Before

 

Since the upholstery is leather, I first tried to see if I could clean it and reuse it somehow.  I know, it’s salmon but I thought maybe a cleaning and an oiling might work.  Its almost always my first step and you would be amazed what cleaning can do (just wait until you see a leather trunk I have been slowly working on.)  With all my years of cleaning leather while riding horses though I have to say I have never seen a piece of leather look so much worse when it got cleaned.  TB came into the shop while I was starting to pull the upholstery off and asked if I had tried cleaning it first.  I handed him the glycerin soap and told him to give it a try.  I didn’t take pictures (I will try to get some) but let’s say that it turned a dark black color like I had just spilled cola all over and it soaked in.  Between that and the scratches you can see in the seat, it was unanimous that the leather goes.

Ridiculous Redhead Habitat Chair Fabric Before

 

Hopefully today I can get the frame to bare wood and I can test the colors I want to use.  I have a plan in mind but wood has a mind of it’s own.  Once I have the wood color done I can finalize the plan for the upholstery.

In other news, I have made great progress on the dresser so far.  Scheduling is my friend right now in order to get work done and still see Lincoln.  Right now he is sleeping so I could get a coat on the dresser and write this post.  It’s such a different way to work than the old way of cramming all the work into 3 days until my arms fell off.

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