Restoring Furniture

 
 
 
 

I found that some neighbors were throwing out some old rattan furniture and I love rattan. In fact the first furniture I bought, well we bought when I first got married was rattan. Rattan Living room, rattan bedroom, and a restored rattan dining table that Tio Pepito refinished for us. Personally I like the natural wood tone, but it is much easier just to paint over it, than having to sand it. The good thing about Rattan is that is lasts for ever, and sometimes like many other things we outgrow it.
Though I don't think I will outgrow this.

But anyway, I found three chairs, a center piece stand, and a thick glass table top and drove right past it on my way to work and said if it is still there when I come home, I will stop and get it. To my delight and chagrin there it was. How will I fit it into my car, and what about the restoration? I slowly and carefully crammed it into my PT Cruiser and drove home.

That was too weeks ago. I had sandpaper and some varnish. So I started sandpapering it away, removing all the dead paint, and stains. I thought wow I will be able to restore this without any extra expense, but the varnish just vanished after a few minutes because the rattan had to be sealed with a stain first. So I ran down to Lowe's and my only expense has turned out to be ten dollars and the cloth for the cushions which I plan to sew today (I already had cloth). I can not believe I will have a beautiful rattan set in my porch practically for nothing.

Take a look at how the restoration is going. I bought a polyurethane stain, which both stains, seals, and protects as you can see in the photo. We had heavy rains last night, with wind, and the water came in.

Droplets curled on the rattan.
No damage.
Big smile.