Hey, look what I built!

[tperson]

Just a quick “hey look what I built/finished in the past 6 months” post. Started 8 dining room chairs in Dec ’24, worked diligently on them until spring of ’25 and then didn’t turn the saw back on until last November…finished them up within 2 weeks of the 1yr anniversary of starting. In the spring of ’24 I wrapped up 4 barstools, these chairs are a nice compliment to the seating in our house. Through a happy accident, I ended up with a full hide leftover (like, 55sqft) that didn’t have a purpose so I built a small loveseat for my work office. The loveseat was based on one of the drawings in the Great Book of Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture with some small modifications: I raised the seat to match the dining chairs (originally 10” off the ground) and dropped the “arm rests” on either end.

 

I bought an old Singer 15-91 specifically for upholstery work and its worked perfectly for my limited use. There's a couple of things I'd change if I did it again...like the filled knots on the chair back-slats (only on 2 chairs, didnt think they'd be as obvious as they are) and the cushion on the loveseat (I didn't even think to invert the corner of the cushion to go around the posts until I installed it). Oh well, live and learn. 

[wtnhighlander]

Nice work, uphostelry included!

[Coop]

Those are cool! Great work.

[pkinneb]

Very nice!!

 

[fcschoenthal]

I really like all of them (I see matching bar height in the background). Did you use fuming for the color?

[Von]

Nice!

[gee-dub]

Very nice.  I have projects that sometimes drag out.  Feels good to finally finish up, right?

[tperson]

On 4/22/2026 at 5:48 AM, fcschoenthal said:

Did you use fuming for the color?

I played around with fuming several years ago and quickly came to the conclusion that the hi-test ammonia that is required isn't worth the health risks...and it stinks real bad. Instead, I use J.E. Mosers Flemish Brown aniline dye followed by dewaxed orange shellac (shellacshack.com), a quick sand with 400, then black aniline dye (put on heavy and wiped off with a damp rag until you get the color you want), and finally 4ish coats of Varathane satin poly 50/50 with mineral spirits hand rubbed (boogers knocked down between coats 2 and 3). 

[Chet]

Those came out really nice.  Worth the effort for sure.

[Mark J]

20 hours ago, tperson said:

Brown aniline dye followed by dewaxed orange shellac (shellacshack.com), a quick sand with 400, then black aniline dye

Why do you apply shellac before the black dye?

[tperson]

to seal the wood and limit the amount of black dye absorbed (darkness control). The shellac really changes the color of the brown dye...before, it's almost a pinkish-brown color and after it's a beautiful, rich brown (someone more sophisticated may call it an undertone).