May 2020 - COVID-19 Isolation Project

Restoration of a Reclining Mahogany Chaise Lounge Chair

Saved another piece from the land fill! Picked this one up on the side of the road in the Uplands area on a grey wet day.
 
It was soaking wet and was an ugly piece of .... at first glace. But, what attracted me to it was the all the brass. How many pieces of lawn furniture do you see with big brass fittings. I figured what's to loose by dragging it home and letting it dry out (other then my wife shaking her head at me ;-). Even then, once dried out it still looked crappy, but it was very comfortable and it had that well weathered look to it. I used it for a year as it was, until the rotten in it took hold and fell apart on me.

Looking for things to do during my COVID-19 isolation I decided to see what it would look like restored. Well well well, turns out that those Uplands residents throw out some pretty nice stuff!! The wood turned out to be Mahogany and the brass shined up very nicely. I layer 4 coats of Tung Oil in between sanding to pull out the rich tones of the wood.
 
I restored the chair to its former glory but not to the point that it looks brand new. I believe that restorations like this need to show their age while looking good doing it. Kinda like me!!
As its a chaise lounge, its missing the leg extension and maybe I'll get around to re-creating that sometime in the future. We'll see how long COVID-19 lasts!

Here are the before and after pics.