My daughter's neighbor and friend has a family piano bench that had seen some better days.   It was wobbly, and the top was full of scratches, dents, moisture blush, and paint splatters (3 young kids, 2 large dogs, and 1 long time in the family).    I was hoping to just revive the top, but was not making any progress.   With approval, I stripped and sanded the veneer top.  Then the fun part to try to match the color.   Ended up with several different colors and brands of stains.   Finally jumped in with a red dye stain (after stripping the top was mostly just red, but it all sanded out), then a black dye stain.  Put on some varnish, and in an effort to push the color, a couple of applications of van dyke brown glaze between layers of varnish.    It probably would have been easier to just spray on some toner, but I wanted this to be durable.   The bottom was OK with a good cleaning, seal with shellac, and applying aforementioned toners (black cherry and newport ebonized cherry), then a couple of coats of lacquer to dull down the sheen.   So now ready to deliver and good for another 80 years.

 

Wish I had your eye for color and finishing!

4 minutes ago, lew said:

Wish I had your eye for color and finishing!

Experience and a bit of color theory and test boards

Beautiful work. Better than new.

14 minutes ago, lew said:

Wish I had your eye for color and finishing!

Yeah, just one more talent I was shortchanged on. Nicely done!

3 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Yeah, just one more talent I was shortchanged on. Nicely done!

When I got into the business, there was another in Dayton that was color-blind.  I am not sure how he did it.  He went out of business shortly after i got in, so I don't know whether I took business from him or his color-blindness finally caught up with him.  I had a lunch with him and all he talked about was himself, so maybe that was part of it, too.

Looks like new Keith

That is a beautiful restored bench.  I love that reddish color on the lid.  

34 minutes ago, FlGatorwood said:

That is a beautiful restored bench.  I love that reddish color on the lid.  

I got some General Finishes Espresso stain a few years ago to add a darker one to my portfolio.   I found it looked much better if I stained with a red stain first.   I've done a number of pieces that way.   Otherwise, I think it just looks too black by itself.

This chair that I have repaired has dots of darker stain like pecan looks.  It is certainly not pecan.  I am going to sand that out and just give it a plain color to get close to the original.  

Oh Boy looks like new. Too bad you did not get a before. And then there is the I don't know how you managed that on veneer.