Monthly Archives: May 2013

The Do Good With Wood Award

As part of their community outreach program, each year Minwax® recognizes and supports the outstanding work of craftspeople who have used their hands and hearts to improve their communities. This year’s Do Good With Wood® award went to the volunteers at the Assistive Technology Center of the Minneapolis Public Schools, where a group of woodworkers have been designing and creating educational equipment to benefit children with learning disabilities. As part of their award, I got to spend a day with them talking about and working with stains and finishes for their projects. If you would like to see what we did, you can read more about it here.


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Saving a Victorian Plant Stand: Part II

As I hope you saw in my earlier blog, I found this 1890s walnut Victorian plant stand at a local flea market priced at just $30. After cleaning off the dirt and re-gluing one loose leg, I am now ready to touch up the scratches and give the old finish some badly needed protection. If this looks like a project you might want to undertake, you can read more about what I am going to do right here.
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Saving a Victorian Plant Stand: Part I

My grandmother loved walnut Victorian antiques, and she loved teaching me how to refinish them. We don’t hear much about Victorian furniture right now, but bargains never go out of style. When I spotted this circa 1890s walnut plant stand at a flea market for just thirty dollars, I knew my grandmother would have urged me to buy it. So, if you want to see how easy it will be for me to restore it, you can follow along right here.
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Miracle Makeover Workshop Day

I can’t think of a better way to spend a rainy Saturday than being out in my workshop. And this past Saturday I had the pleasure of sharing my workshop space with the winner of the recent Minwax® Miracle Makeover Contest. If you’d like to take a look inside my workshop and see how Tom Peel and I spent our rainy Saturday, you can read more about it here.


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