My main area of interest is home repair and reno. My wife and I used to refinish furniture, but we now have all we need and then some. Our best score was a DR set that came out beautifully, IMO. The finish started off as a red gel stain, but it was WAY too red, so I got the paint guy at our building supply place to put in a couple of squirts of black, and it came out a nice, deep black cherry colour.
The set turned out to be solid teak, which was a huge bonus. I checked online for the maker, and lo and behold, the company was still in business, and still makes an almost identical set. I must admit, I liked the new design for the chair backs better, but otherwise it's the same. Our set came with a buffet, and the newer one didn't....and retailed for $9600. All in, we were into the project for around $350, and that included a "mouse" sander which we thought was needed, and did do a fine job.
My wife is very meticulous, and really gets into this kind of project. She is also a brush-and-canvas artist, and is very good at it. Her latest project is a "cityscape" of buildings made of cut and painted reclaimed.cedar fence boards. We're hanging it on the chain link fence at the outer edge one side of our plot, that keeps you from falling into the creek just beyond it. It's about a 30-foot drop, although you would tumble down, not plummet.
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