What style am I?
To make a long story short, a dining room set that has been in our family since the early 70's has come under my care. It's all white oak and we know it's at least 100 years old (but probably not more). Believed to have been made in New Brunswick.
If the set was made around 1900 or so, what would you call the style …. Victorian Revival? One of the chairs is below. The upholstering is real leather. The original finish was the darkest mahogany color you see left on the chair.
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Most of the set was stripped of it's finishing once. Unfortunately, I took a guilty part in that when I was a teenager and didn't know what I was doing either… The chair above was only half stripped and never got finished. The pieces that were stripped got refinished with minwax and a coat of varnish (not very well applied. I am aghast when I look at the buffet piece). There were also several attempts to fix wobbly joints (I'll take pics of these for another post) that make me realize how glad I am to have learned things from this site.
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It's a gargantuan task, and I am sure this will take me at least a year if I don't deviate. I need to remove the finishing, fix the scratches and broken pieces, strenghen the joints, refinish. Make it two years, because I will certainly deviate. But I am starting with this chair. I also have to re-upholster since the leather on most seats is cracked (and simply dirty - and you can't remove it) and it's lost it's bum-comfort.
.
One thing to say though - I love the look of this set.
To make a long story short, a dining room set that has been in our family since the early 70's has come under my care. It's all white oak and we know it's at least 100 years old (but probably not more). Believed to have been made in New Brunswick.
If the set was made around 1900 or so, what would you call the style …. Victorian Revival? One of the chairs is below. The upholstering is real leather. The original finish was the darkest mahogany color you see left on the chair.
.
.
Most of the set was stripped of it's finishing once. Unfortunately, I took a guilty part in that when I was a teenager and didn't know what I was doing either… The chair above was only half stripped and never got finished. The pieces that were stripped got refinished with minwax and a coat of varnish (not very well applied. I am aghast when I look at the buffet piece). There were also several attempts to fix wobbly joints (I'll take pics of these for another post) that make me realize how glad I am to have learned things from this site.
.
It's a gargantuan task, and I am sure this will take me at least a year if I don't deviate. I need to remove the finishing, fix the scratches and broken pieces, strenghen the joints, refinish. Make it two years, because I will certainly deviate. But I am starting with this chair. I also have to re-upholster since the leather on most seats is cracked (and simply dirty - and you can't remove it) and it's lost it's bum-comfort.
.
One thing to say though - I love the look of this set.