“Came Out Better Than I Expected”: 50 Times Old Things Got A Second Chance At Life (New Pics)

The table was $360. I stripped and sanded the table and sized it down from 10ft to 8ft long. Took a week.

I also got the chairs off of FB Marketplace - $100 for all of them.

They're actually great quality, only minor stains and fabric pilling, but after a fabric shaver and steam clean looked brand new.

In addition to $200 in materials to refinish the table, I spent $660 on the entire setting.

I bought this 1950’s AMF DeWalt 9” radial arm saw for $50, and spent 4 weeks restoring it. I am aware that they are fairly dangerous, but I understand how to use them safely and plan to have this be a dedicated crosscut machine. It took a few hours to fully calibrate everything, but once I did that, it was dead accurate.

My mother bought this in New York for her first apartment. As a child i loved imagining i was tiny and this was my house. She found it in her basement last year and gave it to me. I spent some time cleaning and refurbishing and adding some new details to it. It makes me so happy to see it hanging in my kitchen.

I posted a couple of months back this cool Paoli rocker I picked up on the marketplace. It was in desperate need of reupholstery, the rocking mechanism needed to be fixed, and the frame was quite dingy as well. Here’s some After and Before pics of the chair.

My mother-in-law gave me this old bird feeder she had because she knew I could restore it and make it new again. It definitely needed some TLC, so it got some new paint, and now it's all ready for the birds to enjoy. Swipe to see the before photos!

These chairs were salvaged from the owner’s childhood home, which was lost due to a house fire. The wife brought them to me for restoration. She requested a walnut stain to coordinate with existing furniture. Very happy with the results.

Found this absolute monstrosity and decided try try my hand at restoring it for my house. It’s far from perfect now (don’t look too close), I could have continued working on it, but I was ready to be done so I’m happy with “good enough”.

I think the insets behind the drawer pulls used to have some br hardware sitting in them, and the wood there is really rough. The person who painted it also decided to put dozens of little metallic stickers into each one - removing them then tore up whatever coating was originally there. I will likely end up painting those black to get it closer to the original look.

I found it on the marketplace, lowballed the guy, and he took the offer, so suddenly I was in very deep. It weighed what felt like 300 pounds, so I built an all-wood frame to cut down on the weight significantly, reinforced with metal brackets on the corners. Modded the wheel to spin freely to the left, so nobody had to pay, of course.

Our favorite candy, individual Advil packs, and Keychains I made. I've always been obsessed with dinosaurs and own reptiles, my wife loves animals and has worked with them her whole life, so it's mostly Keychains of dinosaurs or animals, a few secret ones. I make art, so I had several generous artist friends contribute their time or expertise. Shout out to my friend for the signs, specifically.

It went great! People were eating it up, and it was picked clean by the end of the reception.

Sanded, oiled, and re-upholstered the seat on this 1960-made chair from H. Krug in Kitchener, ON, Canada. Super comfortable. Unfortunately, the label under the seat got tossed when it was re-done.

Another beautiful dressing table is complete! This one is Australian Blackwood. It was warped and covered in black water rings. The mirror was broken into 4 separate pieces, and the whole thing needed to be glued and clamped as it felt like it was going to fall over. Stripped, sanded, and re-finished - its natural beauty is shining through!

There's no makers mark so I'm unaware of the date but it's certainly vintage, maybe even antique?