A Story of Two Old Rocking Chairs!

I’m posting a real throwback today: The very first furniture project I ever tackled! Two rocking chairs! After we lost my Grandma we slowly started going through the barn, the out buildings and, finally, the house. The two ancient rocking chairs that we found were in wholly different places in their lives. One was in very good condition (having spent its days in one of the upstairs bedrooms) and was probably a child’s rocker. The other had not lived such a grand life and was the one piece that I was most skeptical about even trying to save so it was the first piece I began my furniture refinishing journey on. I figured if I screwed this one up it wouldn’t be a tremendous loss!

It was a big, ancient, oak rocker that was, rough, gnarly and rickety at best. It literally was the color of dust and if it had been in a pile of wood in the barn I may not have recognized it as a piece of furniture. It took more sand paper (and more of my time, sweat and skin) then I ever could have imagined and I will be the first to admit wanting to give up on the damned thing more then once. It required quite a bit of wood glue and wood filler and, did I mention, sanding? But my old oak rocker and I survived it. And then, after sanding down the smaller rocker, I put them side by side and decided that those two old rocking chairs belong together!

I stained them to match and I love how it looks like they’re a pair, the little woman and her old man. I also covered them with three coats of marine-based sealant (I left them out on my deck all one Minnesota winter and you can’t even tell they got wet!). I also was working on a kitchen table at the time as well so I went ahead and stained the three to match. The three of them feel like they belong together, the table turned out to be the perfect height when you’re sitting in either of the rockers. They have a charm, like a family, and I suspect that I will be enjoying the trio for the rest of my life.

Update: the two rocking chairs are out in the garage waiting for spring and the kitchen table actually came into the house one day when I realized we needed something beside our sink. It is now our little coffee station! I will be posting pictures of it next week!

Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/13849220/a-story-of-two-old-rocking-chairs site