Cookbook Bookcase and a new lamp!

Good morning my friends!!  I have been busy working on furniture lately, hence the silence on my blog.  I mentioned a while ago that I was working on a bookcase. I picked "her" up more than a year ago at an auction. I thought she would be the perfect size to hold my cookbooks in the kitchen.

  

I believe she is from around the 1890-1920 time period. I thought she was made from oak. Someone had started to strip the paint off her, but never finished the job.

She still has the original sellers label. You can click on the pic and then zoom in for a closer look.

This is a side view....partially stripped. You can see what looks like a nice oak grain.

Heirloom brand chemical stripper doing its job!!

After I had been tediously slathering on stripper, leaving it to work for about 10-15 minutes and then scraping off the gunk, I discovered that the wood was actually Ash that had been "grained" to look like oak.  In the process also, the glue for the appliques dissolved, so I was able to very, very carefully remove the appliques to clean them up better.

The grained over stain was black and I had to use more stripper and "elbow grease" to get it all off.

I also ended up removing the back so I could really get at "her" to clean her up more.

Here she is stripped bare!!!

After sanding by hand with 120 grit sandpaper.

I absolutely loved how the grain "popped" out when I applied a coat of Minwax brand "English Chestnut" stain.

Better pic below.

Applique back on and stained.

The weather has been cool here for the last week, so I left her to dry for a few days in the garage.

Then I applied three coats of semi-gloss urethane, sanding between each coat.

I brought her into the kitchen this morning (after I applied felt stickies to her feet, so she glides across the tile floor)

And replaced my cookbooks!!

How does she look?

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I know that she would look very pretty with a new "white dress" on, but after spending so much time stripping off the old paint, I wanted to enjoy her natural grain look. Who knows.......maybe in twenty years I will want to paint her white!!

She actaully matches the table and chairs now.  They need refinishing, too. I was going to paint them, but after seeing the results of this bookcase, I am pretty sure that I'll strip the table and chairs and stain and urethane them also. BUT.....I'll be doing that next spring!!!

I took my daughter into town yesterday and dropped into the St Vincent de Paul Store and scored anew floorlamp.

I think you would call it  "Florentine" style. The lamp, shade AND bulb are all in great shape. Cost me all of $7.00!!  It has even been rewired!! All I had to do was plug it in!

I love the detail.

I may paint her white, but for now I am just going to enjoy her slightly,chippy, giltness!!!

I hope you all have an exquisite day!

Warm hugs and crisp apples, Laura