25.4.11

Refinishing Furniture

While Marc's parents Peter and Bette were here, we had lots of visits and spent a lot of time refinishing 4 pieces of furniture! The main piece we did was Marc's grandfather's desk. This desk came on the boat from Holland when Pete was 3. It was Marc's grandfather's office desk in Amsterdam and in Edmonton and was later used by Marc's uncles Morris and Tom and finally as Pete's studying desk while they were in university. Eventually it came down to Lethbridge to be Marc's desk growing up. We have talked about refinishing it for quite a while and finally the time has come! 3 generations sitting on the desk before the refinishing

The desk chair is from Marc's other grandfather. It was his after dinner relaxing chair in the kitchen of their farmhouse near Creelman, Saskatchewan.

The process starts . . . Here we are stripping a book shelf that has been in Ty's room and was in Marc's house growing up. Bette said she has wanted to refinish this book shelf since Marc was a baby. The little white desk Marc played with growing up.
We also cleaned up and varnished this wooden chair that we bought this summer in Lethbridge.
After stripping was finished, we started varnishing. I was very thankful for Grandpa to look after Ty during this whole process.
Marc inspecting our handiwork

The finished products! After many hours of stripping, sanding, varnishing and varnishing some more. We love these pieces!! Thanks so much for all your help Pete and Bette. Here is a before and after series of the desk and bookshelf.

The nice grain on the back of the bookshelf.

While we were at it, we also stained the babygate Marc made for Ty.

The finished chair.

Ty being entertained in his new desk.

Grandpa's desk before and after. It has a nice golden shine now, and the revealed grain is beautiful.



My favourite pieces - Daddy and son desks! So many memories in these pieces already and so many more to come!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love your post, especially the pictures of Marc and Ty at their renewed desks! We had a fun week with you, and it is great to see the results!!
Love,
Dad + Mom G

Lowell & Julie said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE! So much history, so much fun! How special that so much of that furniture has gone through the generations! Isn't it also SO handy that Mom happens to be a brilliant furniture re-finisher? A very handy skill indeed!
PS- I especially love the three generation shot on the desk (Ty's arm on Dad is sooo cute!), and the ones of Ty in the little school desk. So perfect!

Mama Bear said...

Wow, that is so fantastic!! So many generations in the furniture! Good work on the varnishing & restoring! It looks great!

Pam said...

Looks Great!

Katherine said...

oh man, that is priceless! Those pics of Ty in his little desk are adorable.
I have great plans to refinish the desk that used to be my Mom's once we move into the new place. Perhaps I will take advantage of visiting grandparents to get it done. Thanks for the inspiration!