Platform Rocking Chair, Part 1

I found this chair at a thift store in Oklahoma City near my office for $15 back in April, 2011. The wood was in good shape save one of the legs on the platform. I inspected the damage and considered how it would need to be repaired before deciding to go ahead and purchase it. Below are a few pictures of the chair in the condition I purchased it in.

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You can see from the pictures that the Right platform leg (oriented as if you sitting the chair) leans in, and the former owner tried pushing some wood screws through the joint to strengthen it. I will remove this temporary fix and restore the original joint, probably with dowels.

There is nothing fantastic about the chair historically. It is a Platform Rocker likely made in the 1960's or 1970's. It has some decorative features, like the fluted tops on the platform, and the scroll arms. Truthfully, what I really liked about this chair was the overall shape and flow of the wood. It is very low sitting and with its deep seat it should be a perfect chair to read stories to my daughter in.

My plan is to replace all the batting, reupholster, fix the joinery and depending on how clean the fix is, repaint or restain the wood.

Check back soon to see the progress.

Highback Chairs

My wife and I came across some High Back Chairs at our local thrift store back in October 2010. We were immediately drawn to them for their obvious age and the fact that they were are all hand carved and lathed. Upon thorough inspection (vigorous wiggling and pushing) we found two that were structurally sound enough to be worthy of purchase.

***Note: When considering any furniture items for purchase/restoration, ALWAYS verify that the piece(s) have good bones (structural integrity). There is a bold and vast line that exists between refinishing/reupholstering and repairing. Repair takes considerably more tools, skill and patience and is often times not worth the investment in time or money.***

The two we bought are below. 

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After some research, I found that they are "Renaissance" styled chairs commonly produced in France during the early to mid 1800's. As our chairs were not annotated (signed or dated) I was forced to speculate.

All the wood vertices are well smoothed, there is no evidence of modern tools, the different components of the chair are not proportional, the scroll work on the head and seat face of the chair are clearly hand carved, all the joints are doweled and they exhibit varying levels of wear. This leaves me to believe that these chairs were made on or before the early 1900's (emulating the Renaissance style or perhaps even period) by a small furniture manufacturer or individual, sold in the middle quality/price range and used regularly until they were donated.

We purchased them with the intent of personal use and appreciation so their origins or value mean very little ("Neat" goes a long way in our household).

A just a brief 5-6 months later I grew tired of looking at the unfinished neglected chairs and decided it was finally time to start the project.

It took me several weeks to complete the chairs to our likely (only working a few hours at time a few nights a week). I gave the wood a thorough and much needed cleaning and followed it up with a restoration product (designed to give a little color and shine). I did not fully refinish these chairs because we felt that a little wear did more for the character (and I really didn't want to strip/sand/stain/seal all the hand carving and spindles). I purchased some suitable fabric, foam, batting, brads, nails & webbing and got to recovering my naked chairs. The reupholstering of these chairs was time consuming with all the brads but not too labor intensive. 

I finally finished sometime around the end of April 2011, taking about 3 or so weeks to complete.

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And to give a nice side by side before and after...

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For details or questions please feel free to contact me.

The Beginning

Welcome! My name is Chase Cole and I am currently a resident of Edmond, Oklahoma. I am a blessed husband and father to two wonderful girls. I work as a Civil Engineering Technician while I complete my degree in Civil Engineering.

I am something of a purveyor of neglected hobbies. That is to say, I have considerably more interests than I do time. The primary purpose of this blog is to document and record the projects I have found the time to do. I love to learn new skills as well as pass along those I already possess, so I encourage anyone reading this to ask questions, give feedback and/or provide their own methods.

Thank you for your interest and enjoy.