Hi Everyone!
Man, I’ve missed you all. Between a two-day work event and going out of town, I haven’t had time to even say hello! I was definitely going through blogging withdrawal.
During the summer (I think July?), I found a listing on Craig’s List for a Burke Tulip Chair in a small (one stop light) town 90 minutes away. It was a legit Burke and only $50. Hell yes. I drove there and back one Saturday morning. It was pretty beat up and stained:
You can see there are deep chips and gouges on the edges of the base and seat. The seat was badly stained. Yuck. I brought it home and cleaned it with regular old baking soda and vinegar. I used it pretty generously, and was surprised how much it cleaned it.
The men in my family are car buffs and have the hook up with local car painting experts. We brought the chair to Mo (car painting extraordinaire) at the end of summer. When I got the chair back, it was unrecognizable. Seriously! It was white, glossy and sparking! I brought it home and hid it in my guest bedroom away from the cats. I was a little afraid their claws would damage the fresh paint job. I brought it out two weeks later, and I promise, the paint job had cured even more and was even more ‘hard as nails’.
I found a couple other tulip chairs that would also be worth driving halfway across Iowa for 😉 :
I absolutely love the end result! And now I’m going to search Craig’s List for my next treasure 😉
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Incredible pick up! You scored big. I just inherited my grandma’s old Burke propeller-base tulip chairs. They are in even more rough shape. Wondering if you could share what paint and instructions you gave as I will definitely need them to be restored and want it done correctly. Thanks!
Just came across your post. Would welcome any insight you could provide on the paint restoration you did. I purchased 5 old burke tulip chairs and need to have them refinished. Any insight greatly appreciated!