Since I’m one of only two grandchildren on my father’s side of the family, I ended up with a lot of stuff when it came time to help my grandmother move out of the house she and my grandfather shared for almost 50 years. The list includes a set of china that she picked up piece by piece each week at the grocery store, with electroplated flatware to match; a funky late-60s pole lamp (that I’ve since repainted, twice); two sets of super-lovely machinist drawers (the larger of which is in my office and the smaller is in Agent Smith’s); and of course our lovely kitchen table and three chairs that Agent Smith’s father refinished for us a few years back.
Another item that once belonged to my grandmother is a large cedar chest. For years, it was in the attic of tmy father’s childhood home. Based upon its construction, it dates to sometime before 1940, and it was originally covered in rattan. (It was manufactured by the Stewart Company in Norwalk, Ohio.) Since claiming the chest as my own and moving out to California, it had been wrapped under protective fabric with a cushion fashioned to wrap over the the top of it.
At our place in SF it actually resided inside a closet, but once we moved here I figured it was finally time to maybe do something with it. So it sat in the great room, awaiting that “something.”
Well, the third time Agent Smith’s father visited us (in 2017), he started work on making it sound AND pretty. Turns out 80+ years take a toll on furniture. Go figure. Agent Smith’s dad had a tough time getting the lid back into “ready for closeup” shape (first pic below).
When he visited again in 2018, he refinished the chest body. It too required a lot of love and fussing. First he had to remove all the rattan, which was apparently attached with actual hide (aka horse) glue. Then there was much fiddling to get everything sanded and aligned properly. Some of the base/feet sections needed to be rebuilt, and I had to order new wooden casters since the original ones were broken or had simply gone missing a few decades ago.
Last are shots of it after it was tidied up.
Once he was all done with the gluing and sanding portion of the project, the chest was moved into the downstairs area of the great room for the last bit of work. The top was rejoined with the body, which was then stained to match it.
We found some upholstery tacks online to replace the original ones, as most were missing or damaged. When all the work was completed, the chest was moved into my office where it is now used daily–and I mean daily, as I often sit on the couch in my office with a laptop, and the chest serves as both a coffee table and storage. Plus it looks, I must say, rather smashing.
