Antique Rocking Chair — That Neck of the Woods

Oct 9

Oct 9 Antique Rocking Chair

When I asked my mom exactly how old my rocking chair is, she told me that my Great Grandpa McKinsey made one each for my aunt Lora, my uncle Gary, and her when she was about 2 or 3. He painted my mom's this deep shade of red, and even went to the trouble of shaping out the seat of the chair.

The rocking chair became mine when I was little, then my sisters each used it until they were all too big for it. Eventually, when my mom was moving into her current house, she gave me the chair to keep. It moved around with me a few times, always tucked carefully in the back corner of some closet with the intent that one day I'd fix it up and give it to my first kid.

As luck would have it, a few years later I met Jesse and his two amazing kiddos. And when we moved into our new house I thought it was finally time to get the chair out and give it some new life so the kiddos can use it.

Sand, sand, sand

I had forgotten how much pink paint my mom had put on the chair when we were kids. About half way through the aggressive sanding process I realized I probably should have been doing this outside (and with a mask on). That red paint was about 50 years old... so who knows what I might have been inhaling!

I also managed to coat my entire garage in a damned near impossible to get rid of fine layer of pink and red dust (d'oh!).

Moving on!

As you can see above, there was a fair bit of pink on top of the red. I had to do some minor repairs to a couple spots (securing loose pieces with finishing nails, sanding down one rocker rail after a dog-chewing incident years prior).