Ice Chest Finished

More than a year ago a friend of The Chef's named Len found out that I refinish furniture as a hobby and asked me to refinish an old piece he had in the garage for about 7 years. Now when people find out you do this and tell you about some old furniture they have they either 1.) think you'll do it for free or 2) offer to pay you to do it. Imagine how surprised I was when Len offered option 2. My first paid furniture job, yahoo! So the piece was delivered to my apartment off I went stripping away. This piece took me a long while to do, I even listed it at The Procrastinator's Party on The Inspired Room and sadly I didn't finish it in time :-( I hope Melissa let's me join another party in the future :-) I'm happy to say this longer than long refinishing job is now complete and I'm happy to show you! But before I do we have to see the before and during photos of course. Here is the ice chest when I got it. Covered in paint, it was solid oak, so the plan was to strip it down. Normally I paint things or refinish them, this one was the reverse. A furniture rewind, a blast to the past to get back to the real wood. Any boy it took forever! The crackle finish was totally natural but it needed a lot of cleaning up and the hardware was dirty. As I said, here was the stripping. Lots and lots of stripping. Each part took at least 2 applications. Many months of sanding later and here we were, raw oak. The darker spots seem to be from where the previous oil paint stained the wood. I didn't sand all of it out since it would have left some dips in the wood. And finally, the big reveal! I'm the Vanna White of furniture :-) I put on three coats of polyurethane. And the solid brass hardware got a nice brushing to shine it up. Here it is in Len's apartment. And that's my ice chest reveal. What do you think? Have you ever stripped a piece before? Worked with oak? Share your tips, I love to hear about furniture! With this reveal I couldn't wait to be a party-goer with Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday. There are some excellent pieces this week, go take a look.

Flaunt it Friday is a new party for me. Excellent company over there too, at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating.

Who doesn't love a Remodelaholic? Come visit the Friday party.