Heirloom Rocker

These last couple of weeks have been a blur. I know everyone always brags about how busy they are, but this is seriously the only time I've had the motivation to sit down and post. I have nothing new to report. I'm in my kitchen, drinking a glass of cabernet because suddenly my body decided to crave, dry red wine over my usual sweet wines. Does that mean I'm getting old?! I mean, I am waiting on my vegetable beef soup to hurry up and cook through, and I'm feeling awfully sleepy at 8:45 pm. Sigh, I'm a 40 year old trapped in a 28 year old's body thats falling apart like an 80 year old's body. 

Husband and kid both had a stomach bug this week, and it's made doing anything with complete focus impossible. Especially since I just got back from a business trip where I had absolutely no access to a paint brush, or a sander, or my beloved Earlex HV5500. Do you know what torture it is to watch HGTV and Pinterest from inside a hotel room AND NOT BE ABLE TO WORK ON PROJECTS?! I'm going crazy.

Anywho, I wanted to post about this rocker I recently restored. It belongs to a neighbor in our community and she wanted to surprise her husband with the restoration because it was very special to him. His mother had rocked him in it as a child and without dating him, I can say with confidence this chair is at least 50 years old. We had to sneak it out while he was at work and hope he didn't notice, but just my luck, he pulled in as soon as I shut my tailgate. I bolted out of there with my "just here to talk about Jesus" face...not sure if he bought it with my tattoo sleeved self...Needless to say, we got it out of there without him noticing.

She wanted to preserve as much of the original finish as possible, and with the weathering of this chair, all it needed was a good hand sanding, before it was ready for stain. The above picture is after it was stripped and sanded.

This chair was so thirsty for stain! I only used one coat of General Finishes "Nutmeg" gel stain. Does anyone else use the bottoms of chairs or the nooks and crannies that don't get much wear as a reference for original color? Thats what I used in deciding stain color and this shade was pretty darn close. I love the warmth of this stain and how it gives such a handsome elegance to oak wood.

I just can't get enough of that wood grain. I sealed this using 5 coats of Spar Varthane since this was going to be used indoor/outdoor.

I kinda wanted to play mixing modern and vintage in this staging. I like the overall look of the combination of both. That end table to the right is also on my to-do list...another original restoration for a friend.

There's Willie. Photobombing and making it known this is a gentleman's chair. He's so handsome. Until next time guys...hopefully something exciting will happen in the next blog post.