A Challenging Restoration

[wdkits1]

Hi Everyone
Here are a few photos of a restoration job I just completed.
This is a love seat that was made around 1850 that I was asked to completely restore.

 

The owner bought new material to have it re-upholstered but first had to strip it.

 

After stripping off the old fabric I discovered that the entire frame was held together with different sized cut nails and that most of the wood was either dry-rotted or so punky from previous upholstery jobs that most of the framing would have to be replaced.
Plus the owner wanted to extend the depth of the seat by 4".

 

There is a place here in Richmond that specializes in reclaimed lumber salvaged from old factories so I purchased 30 bf of some beautiful 100 year old pine and began the process of replicating all of the frame members. Lots of bandsaw work and head scratching involved here.
I did not want to use cut nails for the assembly so used lots of dowels and flat head slotted screws to put it all together.

 

 

One other thing that the owner wanted was to add 3" to the height of the sofa so I made leg extensions and doweled them in place

 

So after getting the blessing from the owner it was delivered to the upholsterer.
And here it is--good for another 100 years.

 

 

[Clayton717]

that is an awesome job Mike. looks like it was a lot of work.

[amazingkevin]

MASTERFULLY DONE and has your signature all over it MIKE.YOU can do all things thru Christ that strengthens you.Glad to see you back !Hope you beat your illness and looks like you have come back stronger than ever !

[Phantom Scroller]

Mike a superb piece of craftsmanship perfect.  

[jellis]

You are a true craftsman.

jellis

[Lucky2]

You did a marvellous job Mike, but I have to ask, who the heck were you building it for? The Green Giant? Make the seat 4" deeper, and then to add another 3" to the legs, most people would be dangling their legs over the edge.

Len

[wdkits1]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

This was a challenging  project.

To Len.

The photos are  very deceiving  as  to the actual size of this love seat. Adding 4" to the depth of the seat only made  it 18" deep and adding 3 " to the legs made it 15" tall which is still shorter than most modern furniture. Maybe folks were shorter back in the 1800's.

[grampa]

A labour of love, great job mike.........Paul

[bobscroll]

Just seen this post Mike, You did a beautiful job on the project,

Thanks for the photo's Bob         

[oldhudson]

Let me add my congrats on an excellent job. And thanks for posting those detail pics.