Last summer my chicken baby girl and I brought home, Beverly Hillbilly style, a set of vintage rattan furniture. It was listed on craigslist as a curb alert (two words that make my heart go pitter patter!) Turns out some college aged kids were cleaning out grandma's house and thought the set was trash. We piled it high in and atop the car, and drove home at fever pitch.
I set off to rescue it and restore as best I could with my nonexistent knowledge of restoring anything. It was scary to think about messing with a vintage set, but I thought it would look great on the back deck.
First we pulled off the crumbling plastic "twine" that wrapped the joints. Then we pulled about a million tiny tacks out of the rattan. The longest, and by far the most tedious and hard part was the sanding. And the sanding, and then more sanding. School started back up and I got a job, so the project was put on hold all winter. Every day my husband bitched and moaned about the pile of ugly old furniture I had stacked up in the garage. I'm happy to say that it can finally be put on the deck once and for all. (y'know after I finish up those last little tweaks)
Fast forward to this week, nearly a full year later and it is done save for a few coats of spar urethane on a piece or three. My chicken babies and I had some wonderful hard work together, which has translated into some great memories and closer relationship than ever! Thankfully the weather finally got nice. My mom is coming for a visit and my biggest goal has been to wrap up the projects I have in the works before she gets here.
On this project we used 60, 80 and 120 grit sandpaper to remove the graying, old finish and to get down to the fresh wood. I stained it with minwax natural stain because I wanted to only enhance the natural color of the rattan, and the weather coating is done with spar urethane found in a spray can, which has made covering the nooks and crannies WAY easier than I could have hoped for.
Then:
Now:
