Bench, deconstructed

Now that our new kitchen table is sitting in a corner of the the dining room, begging to be put to use, I'm itching to get the bench for it finished.

So yesterday after work I tackled stripping all of the old upholstery from it using three handy little tools. I know that there are special upholstery tools for removing staples and nails, but pliers and a flat screwdriver did the job just fine.

I thought I would whiz through it and be done in about 45 minutes, but it took hours. I removed at least 3 billion staples, nails, and upholstery tacks.

Lucky for me, the guts of the seat are in good shape, so I don't have to do a lot of restoration beyond refinishing the wooden arms and legs.

I discovered that the beautiful 80's fabric was covering up some even uglier 40's (?) fabric. Alan came down partway through the deconstruction and was worried that the lovely green and gold pattern was the fabric that I was recovering with. Seriously? I should have just let him believe it to see what he would say.

When I was removing the upholstery on the seat it went smoothly until I hit the front. For some reason, the previous upholsterer had stapled the fabric down, and then glued the wooden trim piece right over the top of it. It was really nerve wracking to take a screwdriver and pry off the front piece of trim so that I could get the fabric off. Thankfully it came off in one piece. 

This weekend I hope to get the wood stripped and stained in the same walnut colour that I used on the kitchen table. And if I can find some fabric I like, I might even get the upholstering done.

I may sneak down to Queen West on my lunch today to look for fabric. It's sunny and warm - just perfect for a midday stroll.