Heads Up

Over the weekend I finished another furniture project which has been a long time in the making: a headboard for our bed. We have not had one since we moved to our "new" house two-and-a-half years ago and got a new bed.

Years ago Kim's uncle, a woodworker, gave us three large flitches of willow. Back in 2009, we built a table out of one of them. It currently lives outside on our deck. The second was split down the middle to make two benches, for said table, but I have never completed that project. Perhaps "someday." The third I thought I might turn into the top for a sideboard, but a suitable design for that never materialized and we do not really have the space for such a piece anyway. We ultimately decided to use it for a headboard and probably about a year ago--I do not remember quite when--I started sanding it.

The piece was rough-cut from a sawmill and had a lot of parallel saw markings transverse to the length of the flitch. It took a lot of sanding with 40 grit sandpaper on a belt sander just to get some of the darkest and deepest marks out of the wood. I had anticipated sanding all of the marks out, but after multiple days of work and learning a bit more about some of the soft spots and other "character" the flitch had to offer after working with it, I decided to leave it a bit rough. (OK, so I'm not gonna lie--part of me was just tired of sanding!) Many of the prominent marks have been diminished, but it still features some sawmill marks and the rough scars of the coarse sandpaper.

I followed up the coarse sanding with 100, 220, and ultimately 400 grit sandpaper to get the piece baby's-bottom smooth. Because willow is such a light wood and our bedroom has predominantly darker furniture (a walnut dresser I refinished a few years ago and our Paul McCobb Planner Group side tables, which, contrary to what this listing may suggest, only cost us $17 for the pair at Goodwill--no Kim, you may not sell them!), I stained the flitch a dark walnut.

After the stain dried, Kim and I rubbed it down with steel wool and then waxed and buffed the surface for a smooth, matte finish. We then mounted it to the wall with a french cleat, which stands it off a bit from the wall so that it appears to float at the head of the bed.

Except for the still-diminishing (though not completely unpleasant) scent of stain and wax, the finished headboard has been a welcome addition to our bedroom!

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us

I recently re-finished a nice little cabinet (only about 21" tall) into an media storage unit for our electronics and DVDs.

My wife actually saw a corner of this piece sticking out of a snow pile near a dumpster during the winter and we had to wait until the spring melt to pull it out.

The piece is a mix of plywood and hardwood. Though I am usually a wood purist (i.e. I really hate to paint wood furniture) and the cabinet was in surprisingly good shape even after a winter under the snow, I decided to paint the piece. After drying out, this was what we were left with . . .

I removed the retro slanted legs, doors, and hardware and sanded down all of the surfaces. I used steel wool to clean up and smooth out the bright aluminum door rails and rub down the metal handles before spray painting them glossy black. I filled a number of holes and large dents in the body with wood putty.

The exterior of the piece is painted Sherwin Williams Sealskin to match the walls in our family room. To provide a "surprise" pop of color, the inside is Sherwin Williams Cayenne. It took two coats of paint for the exterior and four for the interior. Oh, and the best part: I already had the paint, so there was no cost for this project!

After reassembly, I drilled two holes in the back for cord management and set the unit up in our family room under the wall-mounted TV.

I really love how the piece turned out. The paint took really well to the body and I like that we can finally close up the DVD player and the DVDs (formerly on an open shelf) when not in use. 

Choosing to match the wall color means that this fairly small piece is pretty minimal in the room, but the bright interior really gives it a punch when the doors are open during use.

Overall, a great little refurbishment. Who could ask for more from a grimy snow pile next to a McDonald's!?

RE: Finished

A few months ago, we bought a vintage dresser from one of our favorite shops in town, the English Building Market. (We shouldn't ever go in there--we always see something wonderful that fits our taste to a T! And usually, our purchases begin with a dimly-lit photo-text with the message "what do you think of this!?) It was in pretty good shape and would have done fine as-is with little cleanup, but I have been wanting to try get started refinishing some of the pieces we have gathered over the years (many from the English Building Market!), and so this seemed like a good start.

The piece is stamped "Vega in Walnut by Morris" in one of the drawers. It seems like a pretty well-built piece, but I am not sure the actual vintage. Some brief online sleuthing only suggests that the Morris company was making furniture from about WWI until the late 1980s. If I had to guess, I would think this piece is somewhere from the 1960s or 1970s.

I started out working on the drawers by sanding the inside and outside of the drawer body. I then focused my time on the walnut veneer face, using 100 grit sandpaper at first to get the old finish off. I then moved up to 220, and then 400 grit sandpaper, and finally steel wool. The wood is finished simply by wiping on teak oil with a cloth. It was an amazing transformation, which is quite evident in the before and after shot of the drawers. The grain, hidden beneath dirty and old, yellowed finish, now practically glows.

The drawers had some beautiful details. The center drawers have drawer pulls, wooden knobs with little brass hardware. I worked hard to polish up the brass until it glowed using steel wool. I think the color of the brass against the walnut is really beautiful.

The side drawers have integrated pulls. It seems almost strange, but the back of the pulls are laminate meant to look like wood. It is odd in concept, but in actuality, it was probably a smart move. In other period pieces we have with integrated drawer pulls, the wood is chewed up from many years of fingernails opening and closing the drawers. The color of the laminate is a bit off from the overall color of the piece, but it has helped keep the rest of the wood looking great.

The drawers sat finished for a few days before finally getting started on the chest, which in the end only took two days of on-and-off work to finish.

The chest itself needed a bit of work on the left side prior to finishing, where one whole edge of veneer was delaminating. Using a palette knife and two extra hands (thanks to my lovely assistant, Kim!), we inserted glue behind the veneer and then used a plywood board and a strap clamp around the whole chest to flatten out as many bubbles as possible.

Truth be told, there are still a few warped portions of veneer, but it is in much better condition than before. And we were fortunate that there were very few places where veneer had been completely lost.

Using the same technique as the drawer fronts (100, 220, 400, steel wool, teak oil), I finished the chest. Except for the top, which had some extra layers of old finish and needed a sander, the entire piece was sanded by hand in order to protect the delicate veneer. The surface now glows with beautiful book-matched veneer!

And the hardwood legs and brackets also cleaned up quite nicely.

The (re)finished piece now sits proudly in our bedroom, awaiting clothes and a long second life! It will also (hopefully this summer?) feature prominently in the new master bedroom renovation we have been planning!

(And, yes, that is the requisite Alvar Aalto vase sitting on top. It is a staple in staging photos of Modern furniture!)

Experiments in Furniture Refinishing: Part 2

The great furniture refinishing experiment of fall 2011 continues . . .

After cleaning, patching (dog chew marks on one corner?), and sanding the disassembled parts, things start coming together to look like a chair again after the bits and pieces of the frame are glued and clamped.

After the glue dried the frame was feeling sturdy again.  No more soft, wiggly joints!  Additional sanding removed minor scuffs and scratches, and taking it all the way up to 400 grit left the frame feeling incredibly smooth.

Taking the whole operation outside, we applied several applications of teak oil with microfiber rags. The oil really brings out the grain and deep red color of the teak frame.  These chairs are going to be beautiful!

Like a good TV chef, I did some prep work off camera.  Thought the vinyl was in great shape, the 50+ year old plywood seats had started to delaminate underneath.  We carefully removed the outer-most peeling lamination and then made a template of the seat bottom.  At work one early morning, I used our shop and cut masonite boards to fit the seat so we could re-laminate the bottom and provide some additional stability.

After applying liberal amounts of wood glue to the new seat bottom, we clamped around the perimeter of the seat and left it overnight to dry.  I am not actually sure how this will hold up in the long run, but if this can give the chairs a second life without having to re-upholster new seats, I think we are getting our money's worth on the investment.

Fortunately for us, the design of the chairs features another panel underneath the frame with the manufacturer's stamp.  Had the stamp been imprinted directly on the bottom of the seat, it would have delaminated with the outer layer as described above and we would have lost a bit of the chairs authenticity.  Here I am putting a clear coat on that additional panel to help preserve the branding stamp.  We will be able to re-mount this board to the bottom of the chair once the seat is attached.

Experiments in Furniture Refinishing: Part 1

I have not been able to walk by the English Building Market here in New Haven lately without buying some new (old) piece of furniture.  A few weeks ago, we finally found the twin to a chair we have in our living room allowing us to complete the seating arrangement.  And just this week, I picked up a set of four dining chairs for pretty cheap.

These unique three-legged chairs were designed in the early 1950s by Hans Olsen and manufactured by Frem Røjle in Denmark.  The branding stamp is pretty clear on the bottom of all four chairs, and one of the chairs still has a sticker that says "Danish Furnituremakers Control."

The chairs are made of solid teak with a vinyl seat and the set of four were intended to nest around a small circular table which was, unfortunately, not available at the Market (see below; not my photo).  In good condition, I have seen the table and chair set sell for a couple thousand dollars online.  There is also a version of the table available that expands to seat six with two additional chairs--sounds perfect for our little family.  I guess that means we are on the lookout for two more chairs and a table now!

Though the chairs are in fair condition and I originally thought I would just clean them up and oil or wax them, wobbly joints, a chewed up corner, and a split frame on one have made me decide to disassemble and re-glue all the joints of the chairs.  I have already disassembled and started cleaning up one of the chairs as a test.  I am reasonably competent around furniture and in the shop, so it seems like it will be pretty straightforward to put back together with a little wood glue and a strap clamp.  (I hope I do not have to eat my words later!)

I guess there could be worse things in the world to collect than awesome vintage modern furniture bought for cheap!  But something tells me if this little refinishing/restoring experiment is a success, I may have found a new hobby.

What To Do With a Seven Foot Flitch

"A tree is our most intimate contact with nature." (George Nakashima)

A few years ago, Kim's uncle, a woodworker, gave us a couple of large flitches of willow that had been stored in his garage for years but that he had never found a project to use. Being a designer myself and having a deep respect for the work of Japanese-American craftsman George Nakashima, my mind immediately started thinking of the wonderful things we could do with these beautiful pieces of wood. But once we got them home, they sat in our basement and then our shed for a few years, waiting for a "someday" project.

Well, "someday" finally came over Labor Day weekend this year when we went down to visit my parents in Pennsylvania. We decided to do the project in Pennsylvania because my Dad has taken over one-half of their garage as a shop, and with the car parked outside, he has a nice, spacious setup for working. He also has all the requisite tools I do not have room for at my own house in Connecticut: a table saw, a band saw, a jigsaw, and myriad other hand tools, both power- and hand-operated. Before this little project, I had almost forgotten how much I liked working with wood in a nice, clean, well-appointed shop! And how wonderful it was to do a project with my Dad! It has been a while for both of these.

Kim and I had imagined for some time making a table and benches for our backyard out of two of the flitches, so this past weekend we made great headway on the table, which is completed except for the finishing (multiple coats of exterior-grade polyurethane). The particular flitch we wanted to use for the table top had a few long cracks in it. (Don't worry! It's okay! They aren't flaws, they're character)! In the spirit of Nakashima's work, we decided to bridge the gaps with contrasting color walnut butterfly joints. Though butterflies are sometimes used to join two adjacent pieces of wood, in this case they are not designed to close the gap, which is the result of many years of seasoning, but instead to bridge the gap, strengthen it, and help prevent it from cracking further. We also did not attempt to cut down or shape the flitch in any way, allowing the rustic beauty of the original slab of wood to remain essentially as it was when it was cut.

Traditionally, the shape of the butterflies would have been carved out by hand with chisels in a bow-tie shape. Our attempt, however, was a little more modern: we made a template and used a router to carve out a slightly more rounded butterfly shape. I actually think the curved butterfly turned out really well, and it hints at the fact that it was made with a router instead of by hand. Talk about truth in design!

The design of the base of the table was inspired by a trestle table that my Dad built with his Dad a number of years ago. (That particular table was actually our dining room table for many years when I was growing up.) The real benefit of a trestle table is that it is easily disassembled for storage. This was one of my main criterion for the design of the table as I do not want to leave it outside over the Connecticut winter. Trestle tables are also generally simple, and they allow for the base to be set up and freestanding separately from the table top (i.e. the legs of the table are not attached to the top for their support).

The trestles are each made of two douglas fir 2x10s squared up along one side and edge-glued. To strengthen this joint, and to echo the design of the table top, we also used walnut butterflies here. The crossbeam is a douglas fir 2x6 which is held in place on the trestles with walnut edges. The end of the crossbeam and the bottom of the trestles were cut with a shallow curve to echo the curved side of the butterflies. Overall, I tried to keep the design of the base simple and elegant, so as not to compete with the beauty of the table top.

I am actually really pleased with the result, especially given that the whole project cost less than $100! The flitches were free, the walnut pieces were made from scraps my Dad had in his shop, and the base was made of framing lumber from Home Depot. The most expensive part of the table is the exterior grade polyurethane! Before we came back to Connecticut, we sanded the table like crazy, took it apart, and stored it in the storage room off of my parents' garage. I look forward to putting the finishing touches on some other weekend very soon. (My Dad is going to do some prep work with a few initial coats, but we will put at least one final coat together.) I also hope to get a start on the benches next time we are in Pennsylvania. These will be made out of one of the other remaining flitches split long-ways down the center. The third and last flitch is in my mind as the top of a sideboard for our dining room, but that project is not anywhere on the horizon. Right now I am just trying to finish this project before going to Brazil to meet our children!