Hayley reached out to me on Facebook Messenger after seeing one of my posts and asked me if I could refinish her cedar chest. After sharing ideas, she brought the piece up the next day. Once meeting Hayley and her husband, I knew I would have fun as they were very easy to deal with. Looking over the piece, there were quite a bit of scratches on the top and chips at the bottom. The wood looked like it dried out significantly over the years and looked rather fragile in terms of sanding. Also, the top finish was a very thin veneer which posed further challenges.
After the inspection, I shared this information with Hayley and her husband. I told them what I thought could be done and due to some of the issues what route to go. I also told them to give me a few days and I would share with them some design ideas as the piece sat with me.
Within a day, I had a design in mind but it depended on sanding and what I discovered.
My initial intention was to hand sand a section to see the condition of the wood. 6+ hours later, I hand sanded 75% of the piece. What I found was the veneer to be in good shape and that it was the VERY thick coat of varnish that was cracking and bubbling. I also found 3 different types of wood with 3 different types of grain running in every direction.
I forged ahead with my initial design idea with some minor changes. At this point I shared some pics with Haley and gave her my opinion on what I thought would be a challenge and asked for her feedback. Hayley and I went back and forth with ideas and then I decided to make 1 change at a time to see if it altered the look of the piece. Well, it worked. Like with most change, it brought on further change, so we had to pivot a bit.
In our initial meeting I introduced adding pulls to the bottom drawer and I showed them an example. Unfortunately I envisioned a matte black pull on a stained drawer but that would no longer work since the drawer was painted in Ash Mineral Fusion Paint. Therefore I pivoted and went with handles that I painted myself and added guilding wax. This allowed the stain sections from the chest to to be drawn into the lower piece. Once done, the difference was night and day.
Therefore, the point of my lengthy post is that many of these pieces are about the "process". Not only do you have to be open to making some changes on the fly, but you need to work with client and have open dialog to be successful.
I would like to thank Hayley and her husband for their patience and willingness to communicate. I have been fortunate to meet some really good people doing furniture and have learned a few things from them on the way.
@renew_and_restorations
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