Grandma Maggie's Rocking Chair

The old black color
after last month's test removal

For many years now I've been staring at Grandma Hennessey's  old rocking chair thickly coated with black enamel. It was on the porch for a long time, but it made me feel guilty so I demoted it to the basement, where it has been piled with junk for a couple of decades. I felt reproached every time I did laundry but I had no experience with furniture stripping and knew a refinishing project would be more challenging than rewarding, at least at first.



After removing many layers,
the seat is looking better

About a month ago I was bored and Bob gave me the go-ahead to investigate stripping the chair. He suggested the basement as a workplace and I started some preliminary work on the rocker. The basement was a BAD idea because it was too cold to open a window, but I did just enough work to realize that I had to take the job outside and approach it in phases. Once again, I got away with a stupid choice and neither succumbed to fumes from the stripper nor set the house on fire.

The rocker is very comfortable

This morning I took the rocking chair to the concrete pad near the trash and covered it with an old sheet, a good enough dropcloth. The morning was cool after the debilitating heat of the last few days, and I set myself the modest goal of removing most of the paint from the visible side of the seat. I used only stripper which I removed with a soft cloth rather than the putty knife and steel wool recommended by the instructions.
I was amazed and was surprisingly emotional when I saw the results, after only 90 minutes or so.  I felt channeled and cheered on by Maggie's spirit as the gooey paint came off, revealing the wood and craftsmanship of old. I never met Grandma but now the rocker has bridged time and space to connect us.

I've given myself a week or so to finish the job and have stored the rocker in the garage beside our bikes, for easy access to my work. I'm already looking forward to some winter knitting in my new chair.