Strange
Day

A little while back, we stumbled across a table at a salvage yard (Community Forklift) that looked rough, but had a nice structure to it. It had seen better days, but I was sure I could fix it up.

And it was my favorite type of project. One that was so f’d up, that I was safe. It’s hard to be accused of ruining an antique when someone else already has. And someone else did: Someone had attacked the top of this table with a random orbit sander, and left long, distinct, spiral gouges, and large sections without finish. (You generally never use a power sander on an antique… and definitely not if you don’t know what you’re doing.) It looks like they probably then set it aside in a basement or storeroom, where it also picked up some scuffs and a little paint spatter. And then there was the dog chewing on one of the legs…

Over the course of fixing this up, I determined it has had a couple previous restorations. At least one from someone very skilled, and another from someone who probably wasn’t.

I did my best ‘sympathetic restorations’ on this. The color came out incredible, when you consider there is no stain on the piece at all.

My best guess at the age of the piece is that it’s 150, up to maybe 200 years old. This was never a piece of fine furniture. While it’s well built and beautiful, it shows rough handwork in several places. But this was fun, and it came out well, IMO.

EDIT: Forgot to mention: It’s a Pembroke Table, with Sheraton style legs.

The latest project, that’s been floating around for a month or two. We found this table at Community Forklift, and thought it was great. At a glance, it looks old and very cool. (And very cheap).

A closer look at home already made me a little suspicious. I didn’t want to touch it until we checked with someone, who also confirmed that they didn’t think the table was a real antique either. While it means we weren’t going to make any money off it, I had said up front that if we didn’t sell it, I liked it for my own use.

In the end, I suspect it was a 1950s shop-class project, or maybe someone’s garage project. Most of the wood has some age to it. And there are signs of repairs, good and bad. So in the end, it’s still a reasonably old piece, with real people and an interesting story behind it. And I still think it looks cool.